**Beatrice or Robbie as she likes to be called, at the age of 17.**

Robbie Shearer celebrates 100 years with tales of wartime loss, love and even a childhood friendship with Sir David Attenborough.

By Dan Hutchinson

Robbie – or Beatrice Mary Shearer celebrated her birthday at Liston Heights retirement village last week.

It marked not just a milestone, but an extraordinary life that began in Leicester, England, and wound through wartime tragedy, architectural adventures, and decades of community building in New Zealand.

Her story reads like a novel - her children have actually written a novel on it, beginning with her marriage at 18 to Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot Edward Greg Robinson, 20, during World War II.

Their marriage lasted just three months before Robinson was killed on a daylight mission over France, transporting medical supplies and ammunition to resistance fighters.

"He was doing daylight raids, and I used to say, ‘please, darling, don't go in the daytime’," Robbie says.

"He said, ‘I don't have any option’. They had nine on board that night, taking all the guns for people in France to fight the war."

Robinson's Stirling bomber was shot down and crashed straight into the ground.

Decades later, Shearer's daughter Diane, who also lives in Taupō, discovered that French archaeologists had excavated the crash site, with Robinson's personal effects now housed in a French museum.

Following her husband's death, the New Zealand Air Force offered Robbie passage to meet Robinson's family. She boarded a ship bound for Wellington with other war brides, where she formed a lifelong friendship with fellow passenger Bernice Sutherland.

"I met a girl and she was on her own too. She was just pregnant and we fell into each other.”

Bernice, who was traveling first class, immediately arranged for Robbie to be upgraded too.

Arriving in Wellington at 20, Robbie landed on her feet, making important connections and building a new life. Using money left by her late husband, she purchased two sections and built houses, selling one to pay for the other.

"I applied for an architect to do a plan. And that's how I met my second husband," she says of Stan Shearer, the architect who she would be married to for more than 70 years.

Recognising the challenges faced by other overseas wives, Shearer established the Overseas Wives Club in Wellington to help women adjust to New Zealand life and combat discrimination from local women.

"A lot of them came out to their husbands out here, but they didn't know anything about New Zealand meats or customs or anything," explained daughter Diane Cush.

The new immigrants were not always well received by Kiwi women because of the shortage of men after the war.

"The bullying that went on, it was quite serious," Dianne says.

The club, which operated for decades and only recently closed in Auckland, provided support for women who left everything behind to start new lives in New Zealand.

Stan Shearer's architectural career took the couple to Blenheim, where he designed and built the iconic Seymour Square fountain that remains a central feature of the town today.

**Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot Edward Greg Robinson, 20, died after the bomber he was piloting was shot down over France in 1944, just three months after he and Robbie married.**

He later established a furniture manufacturing business in Blenheim but disaster struck in 1954 when the factory burnt to the ground.

Two years later the couple moved to Wellington, where they lived until 1974.

After the children left home, Robbie was sent north by her husband to scout potential retirement locations.

She fell in love with Taupō and purchased two sections, leading to the establishment of Manor Grove Motel and Truffles Restaurant on Pataka Road.

The couple's Taupō ventures included not just hospitality but aviation, with Stan Shearer obtaining his private pilot's licence and the pair flying regularly for pleasure around the region.

Among Robbie's most treasured connections is her childhood friendship with naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who recently sent her a congratulatory letter for her 100th birthday.

The pair grew up in the same Leicester neighbourhood, where Attenborough's father was a headmaster.

Now residing at Liston Heights, Robbie shared centenary celebrations with fellow resident Mary Sirrell, also from Leicester.

Robbie’s entrepreneurial spirit continued even as her eyesight began failing. She imported keyboard stickers with enlarged letters to help vision-impaired people to use computers, distributing them through clubs across New Zealand.

**Robbie gets a birthday card from an old acquaintance – Sir David Attenborough.**

"I sent them all over to all the clubs all over New Zealand.

"My specialist in Auckland said, 'Robbie, they're wonderful. I'm going to get all the girls in the office to put them on their boards.'"

Her three children have compiled her remarkable story into a 200-page book, documenting everything from her wartime experiences to her community contributions.

The family recently gathered in Australia for her centenary celebration, bringing together 27 family members for the first time in a decade.

Despite her age, Robbie has ambitious travel plans, hoping to visit France to see the museum housing her first husband's effects and the site where he was buried.

"I want to go to France and see where this is, the museum, and where my husband's buried.”