Glamorous Kay celebrates her 100th birthday at The Gables
14/08/2025
A former Harrods’ seamstress and craft-loving resident with a love for a glamorous lifestyle has been celebrating her 100th birthday at The Gables care home in Chatteris.
Kay Kirk-Waring, who has become known as ‘the face of The Gables’, due to pictures of her and her glamorous smile being used on the home’s leaflets and posters, celebrated her birthday on Tuesday 12th August, with a party with family and friends at the home.
Kay was born as Rose Kathleen Crisp in Hammersmith, West London and had 6 brothers and sisters, though sadly 3 died young. She fondly remembers a happy, musical childhood before World War Two broke out and she and her siblings were evacuated to Burnham-on-Sea. Though the children were in different homes, Kay saw her brothers and sisters regularly and had the unenviable job of darning socks – a memory that has never quite faded!
These sewing skills won Kay a scholarship to a technical school where her talent led to her being taken on by Harrods. Her pride in her own appearance meant she was always beautifully made up and when she was 19 during the war, she took on some war work at the ticket office of Shepherd’s bush station, where she recalls walking to work in the dark with sirens sounding and bombs dropping – memories that unsurprisingly have always stayed with her.
At this time, she met her first husband Leslie and they had her only daughter Suzanne. They soon moved to Northolt, with Leslie’s other children. Kay then worked at the GPO and later at Fairy Aviation, which later became Westland Helicopters, where she met her second husband Rex. As an engineer and draughtsman, Rex built a beautiful home in Kersey, Suffolk where Kay became heavily involved with the local church creating beautiful kneelers and taking part in all the various competitions. Sadly Rex passed away at the age of 61 and Kay moved to Thursford in West Norfolk. Following a dispute over Rex’s pension, the BBC Watchdog programme took up Kay’s case and off the back of this programme Kay then met Arthur and they moved to Chatteris, before he too sadly passed away. As time went by, Kay met another lovely local man, Ken, with whom she enjoyed many memorable experiences including cruises in the Mediterranean.
Kay moved into The Gables in October 2022, where her glamorous lifestyle and daily routine of applying her make up, with a preference for bright red lipstick made her the perfect candidate for promoting the care home. Her lovely, warm smile has been used to promote the care home on posters, leaflets and on the home’s website page.
She celebrated her 100th birthday at the home surrounded by her family, two grandchildren Adam and Becky and great-grandsons Miles and Owen, plus friends and many of the residents and staff at the home.
