Fan, 100, will be guest at Chelsea game
May 5 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
LIFELONG Newcastle United fan Bella Martin was game for a celebration lunch yesterday to mark her 100th birthday.
And having first visited the ground more than 94 years ago, there could be no other choice of venue than the restaurant at Bella’s beloved St James’s Park.
Today the club will put the icing on the cake by laying on seats for the match with Chelsea for Bella, her son Jimmy and daughter Helen, with hopefully a chat with manager Kevin Keegan.
Bella lives in her own home in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, with help from carers and her nearby family. She remembers her first visits to a very different St James’s Park as a young girl on the shoulders of her father Ambrose Coe, to watch games before the First World War.
Her last visit to the ground for a game was around five years ago, but she watches every United match on her TV, always wearing her black and white top with “Bella” on the back.
Son Jimmy said: “She loves Newcastle United and gets so excited watching the games with her fingers crossed.”
Her favourite players over the years have been Hughie Gallacher, Jackie Milburn, Joe Harvey, Malcolm MacDonald, Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan.
Bella raised four children – Jimmy, Helen, Eric and Bob. She was born in Willington Square in Wallsend. The family moved to Backworth where Bella went to school and her mother, Mary Ellen, played the piano for the silent movies at the village picture house.
At the age of 15 Bella went into service in London. “I stayed there for seven years but I always kept an eye on how Newcastle United were doing,” she said.
She returned home and met husband Jimmy, a miner, at a 21st birthday party in West Allotment. They married in 1932. The family moved to Seghill then Seaton Delaval, where Bella has lived for more than 50 years.
She particularly recalls her 35th birthday in 1943, which was marked by a German bomber dropping a land mine on Holly Street in Seghill where the family lived.
Instead of presents for her 100th birthday, Bella asked that donations be made to the Northumbria Air Ambulance appeal, and so far around £800 has been raised.
