Eastbourne’s Joan McKenna celebrates her 105th birthday

Mayor Pat Rodohan and wife Barbara visited Hartfield House on Christmas Eve to help Constance ‘Joan’ McKenna mark the occasion.

Joan was born Constance Joan Fiddimore in Sutton, Surrey, becoming a McKenna during WWII with the wartime restrictions limiting wedding celebrations.

While a lot of the Fiddimore male cousins continued with the family occupation of chimney sweep, Joan and her two sisters married, had families, and lived on three different continents.

In the early 1990s the three sisters had a memorable six-week reunion in Tennant Creek, miles away from Alice Springs, Australia, where sister Barbara had settled.

Having had no children, her family is with niece Pam Pope and her husband Harry, who also live in Eastbourne.

Harry said: “Joan could not attribute her longevity to any particular reason, possibly her genes, but certainly an active social life, ballroom dancing until she reached her 90s.”