A retired headmistress has been presented with a Naval cap to mark her 100th birthday, after saying that she had always wanted to join the Royal Navy. Margaret Grey had a successful career in education, but told staff at St Monica Trust’s Charterhouse Care Home in Keynsham, Bristol, that it had always been her dream to follow in her father’s footsteps.
Her father had joined the Royal Navy aged 16 and sailed the world on a number of warships as a chief petty officer, before moving to Bristol and working as an electrician on HMS Flying Fox. Ms Grey was looking forward to earning her own cap, but her parents became unwell, meaning she was unable to join the Navy and she trained as a teacher instead.
Last month she celebrated her 100th birthday with family, friends, former pupils and staff at the care home, as well as representatives from the Royal Navy. Royal Marines Warrant Officer John Morrish, from the Naval Regional Command Wales and Western England, presented Ms Grey with her cap from HMS Flying Fox to mark her birthday.
She was also given a cap from Colston’s Girls’ School, now named Montpelier High School, where she began her teaching career after graduating in English literature from Bristol University. After celebrating her caps with a glass of prosecco, Ms Grey said: “My father would have been very proud to see me wearing my cap today. ‘That’s my girl’, he’d say. He was a very, very lovely man.”.
