100th Birthday Telegram from Queen

By Angela Gooch on December 17th, 2009

COULD Guinness be the key to a long life?
It is what Gwen Louch, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, has drunk daily since she was 18.
Mrs Louch, of Richmond Court, Skegness, drinks a glass every morning at 9.30a, and believes it has helped her reach her century.
She said: “I had health problems, and the doctor told my mother to put some Guinness in some milk.
“I hated Guinness, but my mother added more to the milk every day until I was drinking a glass of it.”
Mrs Louch was born in Leicester, one of 10 children, and began work as a waitress at 14.
She said: “Times were very hard in those days. If you did not have money, you would starve.
“Mum was very strict. She only had to point her finger and you knew to get in line. But we never starved, there was always something in the oven for us.”
She married Archibold, who worked as a train and bus driver with Leicester City Council, and the couple had three children, Philip, Audrey, and Sylvia.
Skegness was a favourite destination for holidays, and the family would take evening trips into the town by coach.
She said: “I can remember losing Philip one evening.
“He did not come back to the coach at the time we had arranged to meet. It turned out he had gone to look at the trains in the station”.
Sadly, Philip was killed during the Berlin Airlift, and the couple also lost Sylvia, who had Down’s syndrome.
But Skegness continued to hold alot of happy memories for the Couple and it was where they, settled after her husband’s retirement from the council.
Mrs Louch moved to Richmond Court in 1998, and celebrated her century of life with a party which included friends from the home and a visit from her daughter Audrey, and granddaughter Lynn. And the tipple was champagne, rather than Guinness.

100th_birthday