Georgina 'Ena' Gardiner celebrating her birthday with her daughter, Lee Johnson.
Benalla’s Georgina Gardiner, know to her friends as Ena, recently celebrated an incredible milestone.
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Ena, who is sprightly and lives alone independently, celebrated her 103rd birthday with family and friends at Benalla Golf Club.
Early in her life, Ena served as a member of the English Royal Military Forces Women’s Artillery Territorial Service, whose role was to protect the English coastline from aerial attack.
Ena migrated to Australia in 1952 from Yorkshire as a “10-pound Pom” with her husband and three children.
Ena Gardiner pictured in her military uniform in 1941.
After arriving, the family lived in various Melbourne suburbs, then Port Fairy, before settling in Mordiallic in 1962.
A very active community member, Ena, along with a few friends, helped establish U3A in Cranbourne in 2005.
She praised the U3A organisation for the benefits it provides to those aged over 55 and retired members of the local community, and congratulated U3A Benalla for currently running 49 programs for its 465 members.
U3A is designed for people in the ‘third age’, typically aged 50-plus, who are no longer in full-time employment or raising children.
It promotes peer-led learning, where members teach and learn from each other.
Ena now calls Benalla home after moving to the area in 2013 to be closer to family.
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