Former city postmistress Barbara Walshe celebrates her 100th birthday this week.
Barbara Walshe will be joined by family and friends to celebrate her 100th birthday at Muirpark Gardens sheltered housing complex in Tranent.
Mrs Walshe was born Barbara McDonald Stoddart on November 22, 1908, at her parents' Newhaven Road home.
One of 13 children – her parents James and Mary had nine girls and four boys – she is now the last living member of the Stoddart family.
She was educated at Bonnington Road Primary School followed by Trinity Academy.
She started working at the age of 15 in the cash desk of McVitie Guest the Bakers and Confectioners in Princes Street.
After a spell working at Steel the Electricians in Blackhall, she moved to work with Leith Provident Co-operative.
It was there she met her husband, John Walshe, and the pair were married in 1942.
They honeymooned in Islay, where Mr Walshe was later posted as he served in the NAAFI during the Second World War.
In 1943 the couple bought their first and only house at Leopold Place.
In 1945 Mrs Walshe gave birth to their only son, James, in the same Newhaven Road property that she had been born in.
In 1947 the couple bought Hutchison Place Post Office, where they both worked until John's death in 1955.
James explained: "My father had a business brain on him. He decided he wasn't going to work for other people and bought the post office for the pair of them to run.
"For eight years they ran it together, but when my father died my mother didn't think she could continue, so she put it up for sale. In the end she probably could have kept going, but she continued in post offices throughout Edinburgh for the rest of her working life."
Mrs Walshe worked in post offices at Nicholson Street, Drumsheugh Gardens, Colinton Mains and Oxgangs until 1986, when she finally retired at the age of 78.
Mr Walshe added: "She actually lied about her age by about ten years just to keep working and didn't retire until she was 78.
"In those days they didn't pay pensions into bank accounts, so you had to go to the post office and my mother knew everyone. She really enjoyed it.
"Even now she says: 'If I could get a new pair of legs, I could still work.'
"She is still very independent, and she's got her head screwed on."
In 1994, Barbara made the difficult decision to sell her house in Leopold Place and move to sheltered housing in Tranent to be nearer to her son and family.
Mrs Walshe will celebrate her 100th birthday with James, 61, twin grandchildren Sharon and Michael, who recently celebrated their 40th birthdays, and great-grandchildren Amy, 13, Jack, 11, Leah, ten, and Katie, six. She also hopes to have her telegram from the Queen delivered by George Grubb, the Lord Provost and Lord Lieutenant of Edinburgh.
The full article contains 503 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
