105‑year‑old Mary Davidson Smith celebrates with 105 birthday cards

Mary Davidson Smith, a 105‑year‑old resident of Care UK's Murrayside care home in Edinburgh, marked her birthday by receiving 105 greeting cards from people around the world. Among the messages, King Charles wrote a personal note, adding to a previous card she had received from the late Queen Elizabeth.

Born in Korea, Smith spent her youth in England, Canada and the United States before joining the Royal Navy, where she met her husband, British Army officer Charles Wynard Davidson Smith, in Washington, D.C. The couple later settled in Edinburgh, raising two sons, Neil and Mark, and four grandchildren. She celebrated the milestone with afternoon tea and family stories, quipping, "I’m glad you didn’t have 105 candles; I don’t have enough breath to blow them out," and expressed a wish to mark her 106th birthday with "a good strong whisky."