Express & Star

'I'm 107 and I have no regrets,' says Wolverhampton's Blanche

Born during the First World War in 1915, Blanche Fisher is celebrating turning 107, with no regrets.

Published
WOLVERHAMPTON COPYRIGHT MNA MEDIA TIM THURSFIELD 28/08/22.Blanche Fisher from Bilston who is celebrating her 107th birthday!..

The grandmother from Bilston was born in Jamaica but moved to the Black Country when she fell in love with a soldier from Wolverhampton, William Fisher, who was in Jamaica with the Sherwood Foresters.

On her birthday she said: "I haven't got a secret to long life. I don't drink and I don't smoke. I used to go the church, but I can't anymore because I can't stand very well. I can't walk and I use a wheelchair which makes going out difficult.

“I try to be independent and still put my own washing out. I have carers and good neighbours.”

Blanche, aged 14

Her daughter Joanne added: “She is the most wonderful mother anyone could wish for.

“She is caring and looked after others.”

Blanche Fisher says she has no regrets as she celebrates her milestone 107th birthday.

The grandmother, of Cherrywood Green, Bilston, was born in Jamaica during the First World War on August 28, 1915 and says there is no secret to longevity, and that she worked hard and loves being independent.

"I've have a good life. I had a wonderful marriage and I never regretted coming to England. I know nothing about the internet, but I thank God for the friends I have made since living here. They are like family," she says.

Blanche Fisher celebrating her 107th birthday with daughter Joanne Hadland and granddaughters Paula Bacon and Jasmine Hadland

During the war Blanche worked in a munitions factory and in the decades after she was employed as a council housing worker in Bilston.

She was born, in Gayle, St Mary, Jamaica to parents Edith and William Summervell and was the eldest of seven siblings including her surviving younger sister Ivy Summervell, aged in her 70s who lives in Florida.

Her father's parents were English and Scottish plantation workers who settled on the island under a government programme.

But life changed forever for Blanche when she met Wolverhampton soldier William Fisher, who travelled to Jamaica with the Sherwood Foresters, a line infantry regiment of the British Army.

They got married in 1938 and moved to Low Hill, Wolverhampton, the following summer as the Second World War was just about to break out. William served in Palestine and was captured as a prisoner of war and taken to Germany.

While he was away at war Blanche stayed with friends, in Uxbridge.

When William eventually returned home he was half his previous weight.

The pair moved to Jamaica together for a short time, before returning to England in the 60s. William died of a heart attack in the 1970s.

Among Blanche's birthday cards was a message from the Queen. She celebrated with a meal with family and friends at Bentley Green Beefeater, in Walsall.

She has one daughter Joanne Hadland, 74, and two grown up granddaughters, Paula and Jasmine.