NELLIE French was born in Holybourne on April 14, 1916, and celebrated her 100th birthday with a surprise party at Grayshott’s Green Gables Nursing Home, and a family lunch at the village pub, last Thursday.

Before lunch the guests, including Nellie’s friend, Jean, nephew Robert Bottrell, his wife Brenda, his sister Maureen Warner and her husband Clive, as well as Maureen’s sister Jane Passingham, enjoyed a glass of sherry.

After Nellie enjoyed a hearty lunch with the family they returned to the nursing home for the party and to see the birthday girl, surrounded by cards, including one from the Queen, cut her cake.

It was only recently Nellie moved to Green Gables having lived most of her life in Alton.

The daughter of a rail worker, she was one of six sisters and when she was young the family moved to Parkclose Road, Alton, and later, after her parents died, Nellie continued to live in the family home.

She worked for 28 years in the Lord Mayor Treloars laundry.

Nellie brought up the daughter of one of her sisters and looked after her until her late teens, when she married and moved to Canada. The two have kept in close touch ever since. Nellie has always been a keen gardener and although she is no longer able to look after a garden, she still fills her room with flowers and plants.