Scroll down & click on any portrait to read their story and listen to music they felt best reflected their personality.
June Close W.I.S.E.
June Close W.I.S.E. 18th May 1957 - 23rd March 2020 In January 1957 the peace in Northern Ireland was shattered by an IRA attack on The Royal Ulster Constabulary Barracks in County Fermanagh. June was born in Belfast a few months later and her childhood would remain...
David Hunt W.I.S.E. (Hons)
David Hunt NDD ATC Celebrated international landscape artist 1944 - 2024 David Hunt was born in Leek Staffordshire where he was to develop his fascination for the vast and varied moorland landscapes. Davids passion for the great outdoors inspired his original career...
Audrey Simpson W.I.S.E.
The group photograph is a cutting from the Sentinel Newspaper - September 4th 1964 - The girl in the front centre is Winner Audrey Simpson HEADLINE - HOUSEWIFE IS 1964 CHARM GIRL Sentinel editorial - The Lord & Lady Mayoress of Stoke-on-Trent (Alderman and...
Sylvia Crowe W.I.S.E.
Sylvia Crowe W.I.S.E. Sylvia Crowe was born in London's Lambeth Hospital in 1946. Sylvia freely admits to being born a rebel, however her life only began after a complicated birth on which she makes this comment. "It would appear that I was making absolutely no...
Mohammed Abass Hassan W.I.S.E.
Mohammed Abass Hassan Born in 1935 Mohammed Abass is a proud Afar. He was once a nomad but now due to age is necessarily settled in his small village near Lac Abbe. He has survived an extremely harsh life which due to climate and geological change has become even...
Margaret Hill (Nee Simpson) W.I.S.E.
Margaret Hill (Nee Simpson) - Born 1942 Margaret Simpson was born in the Cathedral City of Lichfield Staffordshire Margaret's father was an aircraft planner and her mother a happy housewife. Margaret had a brother Jimmy who died from a chest illness when he was...
Brian Morris W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Brian Morris Born in Northern Ireland in January 1937. Brian's mother died before his fifth birthday and he now cherishes the single photograph he has of her which he keeps safe in his berth. His father was in the army so he saw little of him after his mother died....
Roy Hackett MBE W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Roy Hackett MBE 1929 - 2022 Roy Hackett grew up in Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica. It was the same 7th Street that was immortalised in the Bob Marley and the Wailers song “Natty Dread.” Despite working as an insurance broker, among other jobs, he had struggled as...
Tom Wilkinson W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Tom Wilkinson OBE 1948 - 2023 Tom Wilkinson was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and comes from a long line of urban farmers. He is the son of Marjorie (Percival) and Thomas Wilkinson. Economic hardships forced his family to move to Canada for a few...
Dame Helen Mirren W.I..S.E. (Hons)
DAME HELEN MIRREN Born 26 July 1945 At 76, Helen is the epitome of poise and confidence. She’s one of the most respected actresses in the business, having won a slew of awards for her work (including an Oscar). Plus, her presence—even while watching on-screen—emits a...
Lionel Jordan W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Lionel Jordan W.I.S.E. (Hons) (100 years Young) Lionel was born in Gloucester on the 24th October 1921. At school he made a little pocket money running errands for the local butcher but his first real job after leaving school was as at The Carpet Works where he became...
Ambassador Ramesh Chandra Shukla W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Ambassador Ramesh Chandra Shukla The youngest of four sons, Ramesh was born on 8th February 1940 in the city of Kanpur into a family of educationists. His father Pandit Ram Chandra Shukla was the Principal Guardian to the Singhania brothers and a prominent member of...
Gillian (Jill) Shenton W.I.S.E.
Gillian (Jill) Rosemary Shenton (nee Salisbury) August 7 1944 – July 8 2022 Jill was the only child of RAF Sgt William (Bill) Arthur Salisbury and Joan Salisbury, nee Briggs. When Jill was barely 8 months old her father, the Flight Engineer on a RCAF Lancaster left...
Joni Mitchell W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Joni Mitchell From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Recommended by Dee Russell-Thomas GGA) Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter. Drawing from folk, pop, rock, classical, and jazz, Mitchell's...
Kusum Shukla W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Kusum Shukla is a Delhi based self-taught artist who paints with oil and acrylic colours on canvas, wood and experiments with other mediums such as tiles and glass with the help of a self-developed technique using palette knives, which she considers her speciality....
Jennie Farley W.I.S.E. (Hons)
JENNIE FARLEY Poet, Teacher and Journalist My writing career began when as a young journalist I talked my way onto an eight-man expedition to the Jordanian desert as the only woman, camping with the Bedouin while making a film about the discovery of the Dead Sea...
Mavis Perks W.I.S.E.
Mavis was born in Worcester on 8th February 1931 but brought up by her adoptive parents in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire. Her mother tried to keep her but was not able to do so as she had a very sick husband and a child with consumption both of whom died early. Whilst...
Elaine Potts W.I.S.E.
Elaine Potts was born in October 1942 under the star of Libra. After leaving school her first job was with ‘British Aluminium’ where she worked until it closed only a few years later. She then became a telephonist at the local GPO Telephone exchange. Elaine who loved...
Marie Burde W.I.S.E. (Hons)
Marie Burde was a loner and a vegetarian, Marie Burde lived in a dark cellar in the Wedding neighborhood of Berlin, and made ends meet by selling old newspapers, empty bottles and rags. Despite her difficult situation, during the war years she hid three Jewish men and...
Ivy Close W.I.S.E.
In honour and in memory of a loving mum. A mother's love is plain to see. Although I don't remember thee. I know you loved us all so true for I can see so much of you. You were taken from us way too soon, but your loving spirit, helped us all to bloom. You see...
R. Lovestaid W.I.S.E.
He is 85 and insists on taking his wife’s hand everywhere they go. When he was asked why his wife kept looking away, he responded, “because she has Alzheimer's”. Then he was asked, will your wife worry if you let her go? He then replied, ′′she doesn't remember...
Namukobe Lukia W.I.S.E.
Grandmother Namukobe Lukia was born and bred in Uganda. Her daughter produced five grandchildren. The eldest Tenywa told us about his grandmother's life in Uganda. Tenywa’s mother (Namukobe’s daughter) worked extremely hard throughout her life. She sold vegetables...
James Cullen
James Cullen FRSPH - FRSA GGAF Ambassador worldelders.org - Care Director CQE carequalityecosystems.co.uk James was born in 1942. He remembers food rationing, old money and phones stuck on a wall that you had to wind up to contact a switchboard to get connected....
The W.I.S.E. Rocker
Here is a photo of our unknown lady biker "Rockin It" taken on the same bike in front of the same house but 71 years later! If you know anything about this amazing lady lets us know as we would like to celebrate her in the journal The music is from Marlon Brando's...
Elisabeth Moyle W.I.S.E.
Elisabeth Moyle (nee Arendt) was born August 1929 (will be 93 next month). She married her husband Alfred in the early fifties in Camborne Cornwall and they had four children. Elisabeth worked in a laundry in Cornwall until into her 70s. Born, one of seven, in Germany...
Judith Cullen W.I.S.E.
Judith Cullen - Born January 1946 Judith Cullen is widely known as just Judy. She began her working life with what would become a successful hairdressing business at just seventeen years old. Like many other busy mums, Judy spent much of her early married life...
Sylvia Sharples W.I.S.E.
Retired haute couture model Sylvia Sharples, well known in London's West End ran with the Chelsea set during the heydays of Mary Quant & Biba. Modeling with the likes of Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton all around the world. Sylvia is reticent about age and when...
Hilary Halsey W.I.S.E.
Hilary Halsey was born in 1924. She was a bright young girl -brought up in a god-fearing family filled with love and laughter. During the war she became a land army girl and moved to Gloucestershire. She worked on the farm, helping in the fields, mucking out the cows...
Margaret Russell W.I.S.E.
Margaret was born in 1917. Her mother died on Christmas day when Margaret was only thirteen years old. Due to the loss of her mother, she needed to help bring up her younger sisters and was unable to take up an academic scholarship. She later became married but her...
Charles Jackson W.I.S.E.
Cynthia Jackson W.I.S.E.
Dame Judi Dench W.I.S.E (Hons)