June Whiting's latest birthday was a double celebration.
Not only did June turn 100, she is also the 100th person inducted into the Carinity 100 Club for centenarians since it was founded 12 years ago.
The former physiotherapist celebrated her milestone birthday with friends and family, including her son Jonathan, at the Carinity Clifford House aged care home in Brisbane on March 3.
June was born in the village of Pulham St. Mary in Norfolk, England. Her mother was Kathleen Jennings and her father Karl Johan Ohsten, a Danish immigrant who arrived in England during the first World War.
"Despite the fact he was born in the city in Copenhagen he had a love for the farm life, and he bought a small farm where my mother would grow up. She loved it," June's son Jonathan Whiting explained.
June lived on the farm with her parents, an older sister named Pamela and their younger brother, Timothy. After completing her schooling in Norwich, June studied physiotherapy in London during World War II.
"She can remember the buzz bombs dropped by Hitler during the London blitz and hearing the bombs landing," Jonathan said.
"She says that one minute you were sitting at a desk and when the buzzing stopped you dived under a desk or table, wherever you were, and just hoped that you wouldn't be a victim."
June worked as a physiotherapist, including for two years in Canada in the early-1950s when she would travel to the United States and Mexico with her work colleague.
"In those days, two young women traveling independently overseas was quite a thing. My mother can remember seeing the rich Texan oil billionaires' wives with their huge diamond rings," Jonathan said.
June returned to England in 1955 and married her childhood sweetheart, a farmer and top-flight rugby player named John Henry Whiting. The couple, who had met through June's brother, had one child together.
"They had ten happy years in Buckinghamshire where the farm was, but sadly my father died at the aged of 38 in 1965 from acute pancreatitis," Jonathan said.
June never remarried and raised Jonathan as a single parent. They started a new life in Hove, near Brighton, and holidayed in Malta and New Zealand.
June enjoyed sewing, playing tennis and was interested in antiques, attending furniture restoration classes. She continued her child physiotherapy work before moving to Australia in 1987.
She lived at Clayfield in Brisbane and became an Australian citizen in the early-1990s. June is one of the longest-residing current residents of Carinity Clifford House, moving there 13 years ago.
The new centenarian is the first Carinity Clifford House resident to turn 100 since Mary Ryan in 2022.
