Former cook Grace McDonald shares recipe for long life

Grace McDonald, who used to keep the students well fed at the city’s Stewart’s Melville College, marked her milestone birthday with family and friends in South Queensferry.

Youngest daughter Lynne, 62, said: “She is still as sharp as a tack and has always had a great sense of humour. When the man who fitted her special mattress told her an alarm would let him know if she so much as lifted her behind off the bed, she replied quick as a flash ‘But what if I’ve got a man in the bed?’.”

London-born Grace Catherine Funke was born to Alfred and Catherine on March 10, 1916 and has lived through two world wars and seen the dawn of the 21st century.

A Chelsea girl, she actually lived in Islington, opposite the house which the infamous murderer Dr Crippen once called home.

Grace married Frank McDonald in 1934 and the couple had four girls – Sheila, 81, Margaret, 79, Helena, 72, and Lynne – and one boy, Frank, 77.

Frank Snr sadly died in 1966, but the children created an extended family which now includes nine grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and 14 great-great grandchildren.