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Adam Graham, of Kirkoswald road,
Maybole celebrated his 100th birthday last Saturday at a
party in Carrick Sports Club when he was joined by family and
friends from Scotland, England, Holland and the United States.
Councillor Brian Connolly presented Adam with a card from the Queen,
one from the Department of Works and Pensions, and a card and gift
from South Ayrshire Council. Helped by a granddaughter Adam then cut
his birthday cake before everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to him.
Adam was born on June 28, 1908 in
the reign of King Edward VII when Herbert Asquith had just replaced
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman who had resigned. Teddy Roosevelt was
the President of the United States and, in fact, Adam has lived in
the times of 18 Presidents, 18 Prime Ministers, four kings and the
present Queen.
Adam worked locally for P A
McConnell before working in Ayr and then for the Sloans in Glasgow.
David and John Sloan were the Maybole men who in 1938 donated the
pavilion at Memorial Park to the town. Married in May 1932 in
Pitlochry, Adam and his wife Nett had two daughters and on Saturday
five generations were present for the big day.
Adam was too young to be involved
in the First World War, 1914-18, but he did serve his country during
the Second World War. He was captured at Tobruk in North Africa and
was held as a Prisoner of War in Italy and Czechoslovakia until the
end of the war in 1945. After being demobbed Adam worked for various
firms all over Britain and retired in the 1970s. He moved to live
with his sister Jenny in 1995, ten years after his wife died. Jenny
would like to thank everyone who attended the party and all who gave
him cards and gifts.
(The year 1908 was the year David
Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the Old
Age Pensions Act; Robert Baden-Powell began the Boy Scout movement;
the Olympics were held in London; and Henry Ford produced his first
Model T automobile. Born in the same year were actors John Mills,
Bette Davis, and James Stewart; James Bond author Ian Fleming; and
Lyndon Johnson, who became President of the United States from 1963
to 1968.)
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