Kit St. Clair | |
Kit St. Clair on her 110th birthday, with her great-great-great-niece, 11-months-old Jessica Christie in 1992. | |
Birth: | 27 December 1882 Victoria, Australia |
Death: | 19 November 1993 New South Wales, Australia |
Age: | 110 years, 327 days |
Country: | AUS |
Validated |
Catherine Maude 'Kit' St. Clair (27 December 1882 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). At the time of death, she was the oldest living person in Australia.
Biography[]
St. Clair was born at Yanipy, Kaniva, Victoria, Australia, on 27 December 1882. Her parents died in their 80s. She had five sisters and two brothers. By the time her younger brother Hugh was born in 1894, the family had moved to Nhill in the South Gippsland, Victoria. She worked for 60 years in the postal services of Victoria. At the age of 78, she retired from the big suburban post office of Tooronga in Melbourne, only because she felt "it was unfair that people should be losing their jobs while I continued to work". She never married nor had children. She recieved a telegram from the Queen Elizabeth II when she reached the age of 100.
At the age of 100, doctors recommended her to live in a nursing home, but she refused and continued to look after herself until February 1991. Then she moved to Lemon Tree Passage, New South Wales to live with her great-great-niece, Heather Christie and Heather's husband John.
On 5 August 1992, St. Clair became the oldest living person in Australia following the death of 110-year old Gertie Nesbitt.
On her 110th birthday in December 1992, she had a living brother, Hugh (born 1894), who was 98 at that time. She celebrated her birthday at the Harbourside Haven Retirement Village in Shoal Bay, near Port Stephens. When asked about the secret of her longevity, she said: "Everyone asks how I've done it but I can't tell them. I think it was just plain living, never being extravagant". Her brother Hugh died in March 1993.
St. Clair died in Lemon Tree Passage, New South Wales, Australia, on 19 November 1993, at the age of 110 years, 327 days.
References[]
- 2021 validations, Gerontology Research Group
- The Sun Herald, 29 December 1991
- PLAIN-LIVING KIT HAS A YOUNGER BROTHER, 98, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 December 1992
- Herald Sun, 17 December 1993
Australia's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • T • E) |
Helen Dunbar • Jessie Pearce • Clara Byrne • Ada Sharp • Honora Corrigan • Mary Keefer • Josephine Gasse • Elizabeth Swatton • Samuel Rowe • Sarah Potter • Jane Piercy • Mary Nixon • Caroline Mockridge • Agnes Dodds • Mary Hurley • Ada Whitfield • Beatrice Pollock • Gertie Nesbitt • Kit St. Clair • Ada Cleggett • Ada Stockdale • Mary MacPherson • Christina Cock • Jessie Hurley • Alice Lindsay • Sarah Davey • Myra Nicholson • E. Beatrice Riley • John Campbell Ross • Miriam Schmierer • Eva McConnell • Jane Gray • Vi Robbins • Ethel Farrell • Mary Whitehurst • Marjorie Cooke • Margaret Vivian • Wilhelmina Overall • Agnes Kluckhenn • Mabel Crosby • Dexter Kruger • Ivy Tate • Ina Reid • Gwen Moore • Catherina van der Linden • Olga Abate • Ken Weeks |