Bury St Edmunds woman Mary Tarry, formerly of Aldeburgh, dies at age of 107

A family-oriented woman who loved music and the coast has passed away at the age of 107.

Former music teacher Mary Tarry, originally from London, moved to the Martins care home, in the Vinefields, Bury St Edmunds, in 2008, having previously lived in Aldeburgh.

Her nephew Peter Tarry, from near Newmarket, said his aunt, who never married and had no children, died at her care home on Easter Monday.

“The staff were brilliant and pushed her bed underneath the window and she could hear the children playing in the Abbey Gardens by the home,” he said. “They were so good to her in every respect.”

Mr Tarry, whose father was Miss Tarry’s brother Stephen, said her early life had been hard, with her father killed in the First World War when she was just 15 months old.

Born in Finchley, she moved to Hatfield and then Harpenden, in Hertfordshire. She taught music at St Albans High School where she was ‘very highly thought of’.

Miss Tarry, who had two brothers and a sister, cared for her mother until her death in 1971. Then in 1972 she retired to Aldeburgh, where she enjoyed a ‘lovely life,’ said Mr Tarry.

He described her as a character and very strong, but also very generous and kind and a great family person.

He said: “I think the whole family regarded her as someone special as she was always there for everybody and kept in touch with all the nieces and nephews and kept an interest in their lives.”

He also said she was very religious, which came from her father Edwin and her mother Ethel.

For our coverage of her 107th birthday in January this year, we asked Miss Tarry about the secret to a long life, to which she replied: “I’d certainly tell you if I knew.

“Trust in God, and believe in His word.”

While she played piano and violin, Mr Tarry believed his aunt’s main hobby was photography, and she became a bit of a photographer for the family at celebrations.

But he also added: “Her big hobby was being in Aldeburgh by the sea. She loved swimming in the sea and organised trips from the home to be taken to the coast in quite recent years.

“She paddled in the sea when she was 104.”

She had ushered at the Snape Maltings concert hall in Aldeburgh for several years and even met Benjamin Britten, the famous composer and pianist who was responsible for the creation of Snape Maltings.

“She loved her music and being part of the Maltings. She loved the concerts,” said Mr Tarry.

Miss Tarry was also a bellringer at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Aldeburgh.

Mr Tarry said she had lived to an ‘incredible’ age, but it was still a shock when she passed away. “We shall miss her,” he added.

She will be remembered at a thanksgiving service at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds, where she worshipped, on May 24.