A sherry a day could be the secret to how a New Year's baby has survived two world wars and a battle with cancer, to hit 100.

Agnes Hyson arrival as the first baby born in Kingston in the New Year 1916 was announced in the newspaper a century on, her landmark 100th was repeated the feat.

The centenarian celebrated her birthday at Whitefarm Lodge Care Home in Whitton with five generations of family, including two of her great great grandchildren.

Mrs Hyson has lived in Kingston, Teddington and Hampton Hill, and recently moved into Whitefarm, 15 years after the death of her husband Reginald Hyson who served as a Flight Lieutenant during WWII.

Son Denis Hyson, 76, said he didn’t know exactly what her secret was but that it could be her "sherry a day".

Mr Hyson said his relationship with his mother was "really good and it goes back such a long way."

Mrs Hyson has four children, John, Denis, Doreen and Brian, 11 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and six great great grandchildren.

Mr Hyson described his mother as "a really tough woman".

He said that during WWI, Agnes’s mother and three children were left to "fend for themselves".

During WWII Denis and his older brother John, two and three at the time, were separated from their mother following an evacuation to Cardiff in 1942 and were taken in by an elderly Cardiff couple.

Mrs Hyson couldn’t go with her sons as she was pregnant at the time and they did not reunite for three years.

While battling breast cancer in the 1990s, Agnes used to get the bus everyday for hospital treatment.

She received birthday cards from The Queen, from Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan-Smith MP and lots of other cards and presents from friends and family.