Ilkley 100-year-old skips every day (From Ilkley Gazette)

Ilkley 100-year-old skips every day

9:12am Thursday 2nd April 2009

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One of Ilkley’s oldest residents is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to a game of table tennis.

Agnes Kingsman – or Westy as she prefers to be known – is preparing to celebrate her 100th birthday on Tuesday, but still skips every day and plays a mean game of table tennis.

A resident of Abbeyfield Grove House in Ilkley, she is a firm favourite among members of the Ilkley University of the Third Age (U3A) table tennis group.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Howard Middleton, is expected to visit Abbeyfield on Tuesday, and Westy’s relatives are travelling from as far afield as Norfolk and Northampton to enjoy a celebration with her.

Abbeyfield is also planning a party for her and other residents.

“She’s an example to all,” said one of the staff.

Westy joined the Ilkley U3A table tennis group at the age of 98, and other players were astonished when she revealed her age.

“She has a killer backhand smash,” said course leader Colin Lancaster.

Born Agnes Isobel Westwater in Falkirk in 1909, she spent much of her long life in the South East, but sold her Surrey home at the age of 97 and moved to Ilkley to be closer to her son.

As a young woman, she was a keen tennis player and worked for Falkirk Council, but decided to leave home for a less quiet life at 21. She sat the Civil Service entry exam, finishing second in Scotland and fourth in the whole of the UK, and went to London to work for the Civil Service.

She met her future husband, Ernest Alfred Kingsman, known as Tony, at a tennis club, and the two were married in 1935. They had a daughter, Jill, in 1937, and a son, Colin, in 1943.

As well as picking up many trophies for her tennis and golf, she has always enjoyed travel, visiting the Antarctic in 2005, and going to Turkey and the Black Sea the following year.

Tony Kingsman died in 1983, but Mrs Kingsman stayed at her home in Surrey until 2007, when she sold it along with her beloved grand piano, and moved to Abbyefield. Her son, Colin Kingsman, lives nearby on Queen’s Drive Lane. She has 11 great-grandchildren.

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