Photo by  Martin Johns

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Mirrie Lambert  -  1918-2018

Mirrie was 100 years old in June 2018; she was born in Hickling in 1918 and was one of 10 children, whom she helped to bring up before becoming a professional nanny.   So she spent much of her life “pushing a pram”.   She was looked after  by her grandparents and returned to Hickling to go to School  when she was 4. 

Her father was a verger and gravedigger and she tells us how she used to help with tolling the bell from a young age.  She loved the church and the choir and was greatly involved in both.

The war put new demands on Mirrie.  Stationed at Kidlington in a mainly Polish Camp, she was far from home with no money for travel and often hitchhiking without a pass and with the military police on her case.   Her story of being driven home by Queen Mary is not to be missed.

Mirrie had hopes of bettering herself, of training in the army medical corps - but it was not to be and like other girls after the war she continued as a mother`s help.  But she was good at caring for children and worked as Nanny Lambert for  her family for many years, following them to Africa.

Mirrie lived in retirement in the Alms Houses in Hickling, visited by her families, and was a sharp observer of the changing village…