Celebration for centenarian Alice

ALICE celebrates with son Les

THE mother of former Latics player and Manchester City kitman Les Chapman celebrates her 100th birthday today.

Alice Chapman was born in Watersheddings and lost her mother when she was only two and father at the age of nine.

The hard-working girl became a housemaid for a family in Dobcross at the age of 16, before going on to work as a weaver in mills across Oldham.

She married her late husband James, who died in 1975, at Moorside Church in 1936. The couple had two sons, Les and the late Robert..

Les said: “She always watched me play throughout my career and came to the Gillingham match at Wembley in 1999 when City won the play-off final.

“In the stand after the game she got three different proposals for marriage from ecstatic fans.”

Alice has two grandchildren, Tiffany and Suzanne, and two great-grandchildren, Phoebe and Elizabeth.