Valérie Chown, born in 1918 in Manchester and typist for the Marines during the Second World War, received a card from the Queen of England on the occasion of her birthday.
Valérie Chown was born on September 25, 1918 in Manchester, in the district of Cheetlam where lived her parents, both professional actors. She has just celebrated her centenary.
She did not know her father called to the flag and died in action. His mother remarries and gives him two half-brothers. His father-in-law died in 1930 and his mother in 1933. Valérie was greeted by her grandmother while the two boys were placed in a home.
Typist for the Marines
In 1939, at the age of 21, she worked as a secretary typist at the Marine Communication. She stayed there until 1945.
She gets married that same year with Geoffrey Smith. The couple moved to Devon and gave birth to two children: Nicolas in 1946 and Penelope in 1948. She will have four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Widowed in 1974, she lives alone in her house.
In 1993, she met 75-year-old Donald Chown, ten years older, and married her. They live together until 2001 when she finds herself widowed again. In 2006, she is again bereaved by the death of her eldest son Nicolas.
Meanwhile, his daughter Penelope and his son-in-law acquired La Retoudière in Joué-du-Bois to settle there at their retirement. It was only in 2011, at the age of 93, that Valérie decided to join them there.
A map of the queen
For her birthday, she received a card with the portrait of her majesty Elizabeth II with her autograph under "congratulations and wishes".
At the communal hall, on Tuesday, September 25, many friends gathered to celebrate its centenary and the mayor, Pierre Corroeur, welcomed him with his compliments and a beautiful floral composition offered by the municipality after tracing his biography. His appetite for life is far from being extinguished, witness his laughing eyes, his warm touch and his alertness.