THE pictures of Queen Elizabeth II visiting Weymouth with her parents in 1939 (Looking back, June 5 and June 12) caused quite a bit of correspondence.

One of the people the royal family met was ‘Grannie’ Mary Levena Wallis, who was the oldest woman in the town at the time.

Since publishing the story we have received a lovely letter from David Hingle, who lives in the town, and who is Grannie Wallis’ great-grandson.

He sent in this wonderful picture of Grannie with her husband Charles and wrote about her family and life.

Here is some of what David told us, much of it gleaned from the Southern Times newspaper which wrote about her life.

Grannie Wallis came to Weymouth from the village of Mosterton in West Dorset when she was just eight.

David writes: “When she first arrived in Weymouth there was no esplanade as it is now.

“She worked in service and had to cross fields to get to work. A fair came to Weymouth every year which everyone enjoyed.

“Grannie also saw the last hanging in Dorchester of a woman who murdered her husband.

“She wrote that she was dressed all in black and Thomas Hardy was among the crowd of onlookers.”

She also saw her first movie in 1929 in the Theatre Royale, which was behind the old Dorset echo office in St Thomas Street, Weymouth.

Grannie married Charles Wallis and they lived in Old Wyke Village, although her last years were spent in 31 Chickerell Road.

Grannie and Charles had many children including John, George, Rose, Ethel, Sarah – who was pictured with her mother when she met the royal family – Kathleen and maybe more.

John was lost at the battle of Jutland in 1916 when he was serving on board HMS Tipperary and Rose immigrated to Canada.

David writes: “When Grannie was asked the secret of her long life she replied that she had eaten pork fat all her life.

“Another story passed down from my grandmother Kathleen, or Kitty, who was Grannie’s daughter, was that when the Royal Adelaide foundered on Chesil Beach, Grannie was among the crowd on the beach.

“She picked up a roll of cloth that had come from the shipwreck, took off her coat, lifted her pinafore and got a friend to wrap it around her body.

“Job completed, she lowered her pinafore, put on her coat and went on her way.

“Not long afterwards she was approached by a customs officer who reprimanded her for being on the beach in such foul weather ‘in her condition’. He thought she was pregnant!”