A LANDMARK 100th birthday was celebrated by a great grandmother, who has lived in Wormley for almost a century.

Cissy Harvey was born in London within the sound of Bow Bells but moved with her family to Culmer Lane, near Sweetwater Lake in Wormley, when she was a baby.

She was educated at Witley School and left aged 14 to work at the Lipton’s store in Godalming, before moving closer to home to work at Wormley-based major paint supplier Pinchin and Johnson in 1933.

At Pinchin and Johnson, Cissy helped to prepare the paints used for aeroplanes in the early days of passenger flights.

During the Second World War, she served with her sister Betty in the canteen provided at Witley Scout Hut for the huge influx of soldiers based at training camps locally.

When Enton Hall Hydro opened as a health spa in 1949, she worked there as a waitress in the dining room until it closed in the late 1970s.

Built in the early 1880s with gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll, Enton Hall was a leading spa, made famous by James Bond author Ian Fleming, who wrote about his own 1956 stay there in Thunderball, referring to it as Shrublands.

Cissy married Reginald Harvey in 1942, whom she met when he was lodging with her parents.

After their marriage, the couple bought a cottage close to her parents at Rose Cottages in Culmer Lane.

Reginald worked for the railway and National Freight Carriers until he retired, but he continued working and joined Cissy at Enton Hall, where he was a porter.

Mother of Peter, Shirley and Christopher, she has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren, and now lives with her sister Betty, 93, at Haslemere’s Chestnut View care home.

A big family birthday celebration was held at Haslewey community centre next door to Chestnut View on Tuesday.

Peter said: “Mum says her secret for a long and happy life is live it to the full, enjoy life and the odd tot of whisky.

“We most admire mum’s determination in never giving up and staying focused on life.”

Cissy’s niece, Betty’s daughter and Witley parish councillor Maxine Gale said: “Cissy told me one of the changes she was most excited about was electricity. It came when she was a child and it was like magic. The eldest of three, she was in charge of the candle for their bedroom.”