The family of the late Ederney war nurse Olive Jones have paid tribute to a loving mother who lived her “long and interesting life” to the full.

Olive (97), late of Letterboy Road, Ederney, passed away suddenly on the afternoon of Friday, April 9.

Speaking on behalf of her family, Olive’s eldest daughter, Jennifer Barton, described her late mother as “very loving”.

“I couldn’t have asked for better. She was very outgoing and sociable. She was a very lively lady and very colourful,” she said.

Born on March 21, 1924 to George and Mary Montgomery, Olive was raised along with her seven siblings on a small farm in the townland of Tirmacspird, on the outskirts of Ederney village.

She grew up in a very musical household and thoroughly enjoyed playing the accordion and the violin, which she taught herself by ear.

“We used to hear something on Top of the Pops on TV, and we would say, ‘Can you play that, mum?’, and she would practise away at it. Then she’d play it for us and we’d dance around the floor to that,” reminisced Jennifer, adding that her mother “absolutely lived for music”.

At the age of 17 years old, Olive joined the women’s division of the RAF (Royal Air force) in May, 1943.

Her training was at RAF Wilmslow in Cheshire, where she joined the first female RAF recruits known as the WAAFs (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force).

Thereafter, her RAF service as a nurse took her all the way to Egypt on the troop ship, the ‘Empress of Australia’, and she took up her duties at the British Service Hospital in Cairo.

Whilst on duty in Egypt, she cared for a young Richard Attenborough, the well-known late actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur and politician.

The late Lord Attenborough was a brother of broadcaster and natural historian, Sir David Attenborough.

“She was assigned to look after him for three weeks when he was there to entertain the troops. She went out to the pictures with him a few times,” Jennifer recalls her mother telling her.

On her return back to Northern Ireland, Olive was to be stationed locally at RAF Castle Archdale, but due to the illness of a fellow female recruit, she ended up having to quarantine and hence lost her post.

Rank of Corporal

Instead she was stationed at RAF Bishop’s Court, near Downpatrick, and worked on the wards there. During her service, Olive reached the rank of corporal and enjoyed her time travelling all around the world.

In 1951 she returned home to look after her mother and that was when she met the love of her life, Albert Jones, from the nearby townland of Crimlin.

The couple married in 1952 and Jennifer recalls a poem her father wrote for her mother which illustrates their love for each other: “He said in it, ‘If I could go to the moon and bring it back down, I’d give it to you’.”

After marrying Albert, farming became a way of life for Olive back at her Tirmacspird homestead once again, before both of them changed career to move into the retail business when they took over Vance Brothers’ grocery and general stores business at Ederney’s Market Street in the early 1960s.

The couple went on to have five children: Jennifer, Diana, Bert, Noleen and Adele.

In 1985, Albert sadly passed away.

“So she’d been longer a widow than she had been a wife,” explained Jennifer.

“She was a person that if she had nobody in the house, she’d be very lonely. She was a very outgoing person and would nearly have invited a stranger off the street to come in and chat,” she added.

Jennifer recalled taking her mother to celebrate VJ Day at the Enniskillen Royal School (the former Portora Royal School site) last year.

“She attended it with other war veterans. It meant a terrific amount to her; she was very proud,” said Jennifer.

Faith was very important to Olive, and she was a regular attender to worship at Colaghty Parish Church.

“She was the oldest member in the church,” said Jennifer, adding that she was also the oldest lady in the church’s women’s fellowship group.

Talking about her mother’s creative side, Jennifer explained that she enjoyed patchwork and made handmade patchwork quilts for all of her grandchildren, who she loved very much.

Olive’s funeral, which was arranged by F.G. McFarland and Sons, Funeral Director, took place in her beloved Colaghty Parish Church on Sunday, April 11, followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery.

Beloved wife of the late Albert John, and dear mother of Jennifer, Diana, Bert, Noleen and Adele, Olive is greatly missed by her entire family circle.