A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER has celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by friends and family at a Frinton care home.

Lillian Lazenbury marked her centenary last Thursday with a tea party at Read House.

She was born in Dalston, east London, in 1918.

Lillian left school at the age of 14 and went on to work as a sewing machinist at Blandford Hall in Alexandra Palace.

She married husband Frank when she was 20 and became a housewife at the age of 24, bringing up three children while Frank served in the Navy.

Son Terry said: “We moved to north London in the Forties and during the war we were evacuated to the Midlands. I was still in her tummy when the family were evacuated.

“She’s always loved singing, and she loved all of the popular stuff like Bing Crosby.

“She used to sit in her bungalow in Walton and listen to BBC Radio Essex and guess the next line to all of the songs.”

Lillian has two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Her family joined her for the party.

“She had a wonderful day – she had her hair and nails done and all the other residents were there which was nice,” said Terry.

“She also got the card from the Queen.”

He added: “People ask her all the time what the secret is to her long life.

“She’s never been to a gym in her life, but she lived in that time when if you needed to go to the shops you walked.

“And she never smoked a cigarette in her life.”

“It’s also in the family’s genes – other members of her family have lived well into their 90s.”