Mitcham 100-year-old: 'I wouldn't live anywhere else' (From Wimbledon Guardian)

Mitcham 100-year-old Elizabeth Cannon: 'I wouldn't live anywhere else'

9:21am Friday 8th February 2013 in News By Omar Oakes

Despite living in the area for 70 years and seeing her house blown up during the Second World War, a great-grandmother is determined to live her last days in her beloved Mitcham.

Elizabeth “Betty” Cannon, who lives in Caesar Walk, celebrated her 100th birthday alongside friends and family on Thursday, January 31.

Born in Stepney into a family of 13 children, she moved to Love Lane, Mitcham, with her husband, a dock worker, and young son in 1938.

During the war, she and her three younger children were moved to Nottingham while her husband remained home until it was bombed out.

She eventually returned to their new home in Caesar Walk, but remembers bombs being dropped on Mitcham Common.

Mrs Cannon said: “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve kept very well, and I am determined to stay here in my own home.

“The houses are the same, but there are different people in them.

“But their neighbourliness is just the same. I couldn’t manage without their help.”

Daughter Dorothy Buckrell said: “She loves her family: three children, five grand- children and six great- grandchildren.

“She is very proud of them all, and looks forward to their visits as much as they do.

“Perhaps this is the secret of her long life.”