Britain’s oldest triplets celebrate their 80th birthday

Britain’s oldest surviving triplets blew out the candles on their 80th birthday cake this weekend.

Mary Bloxham, Margaret Coleman and Georgina Leech, 80, were born on May 20 1937 and grew up together in the Hall Green area of Birmingham.

Their mother, Mabel Bloxham, was expecting one child and the chances of triplets surviving in the 1930s were very slim.

But the three sisters, born to the family name, Bloxham, celebrated their 80th birthday together with their family on Saturday.

Mary said: “When we were born, only one baby was expected and then obviously three arrived.

“When my mum asked the doctor, he said he thought there was two of us, possibly three.

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“My mum asked him why he wouldn’t tell her that and he said there was no point because it would have only made her scared.

“I was born first at four and a quarter pounds, Margaret was next at four and three quarter pounds and Georgina was last at four pounds.

“The nurse didn’t have anything paper to write this on so she found a matchbox and wrote it on that.”

After being born in their mother’s bedroom, a piece of coloured wool was wrapped around each of their wrists, pink for Mary, green Margaret and yellow for Georgina.

Since then, their mother made them clothes which included each of those colours.

“My mum put a piece of wool around each of our wrists, I had a pink one, Margaret had a green one and Georgina had a yellow one.

“Our mum made most of our clothes growing up and whatever she made, she always used a bit of pink in mine, green in Margaret’s and yellow in Georgina’s.

“I worked at Solihull council for 44 years, mainly doing type setting, but when I retired I was the longest serving member of the council.

“All three of us retired at the age of 60.

“Margaret worked at Boots the chemist for 44 years.”

Margaret said: ”When we were born we had the King’s bounty, which ended up being three pounds between us.

“It was started by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and my mum applied for it when we were born.

“We received a letter from Buckingham Palace along with a cheque for three pounds.”

Georgina, a mother-of-two and grandmother of four, said: “Margaret got married first in 1962 and she stayed in the Hall Green area of Birmingham with her husband, Michael.

“I got married in 1965 to my husband, John, and I moved to Coventry where I still live 52 years later.

“Mary lived in the family home until 2010 and she now lives next-door to Margaret and Michael.”

The birthday celebrations were kept to just the family, although Georgina admitted that “anything could happen”.

She added: “There will be 19 of us at our 80th birthday, it will just be a family thing.

“We have people coming up from Plymouth, Ipswich and Worcester. My two children are coming over from Coventry.

“I don’t know what will happen at the party, anything could happen.

“It will just be a chance to chat, natter and eat with the family.

“We were going to hire out a hall or something like that but we didn’t know where to stop on numbers.

“So we just made it a family thing because we had a big bash for our 70th.

“Margaret and I have done the food, some of it will be homemade and some of it will be bought.”

Margaret added: “It’s absolutely fantastic and we are having the most fantastic time.

Top pic: SWNS