A Chessington woman has celebrated reaching the age of 102.

Hilda Denton, who is in care at Amy Woodgate Resource Centre in Nigel Fisher Way, was born a year into the First World War in December 1915 and has lived in Kingston since 1935.

She was born in St Pancras, central London, with a brother and sister, named Edward and Alice, and used to be a dressmaker in the needleworks industry.

Asked what it was like growing up in the Second World War, Mrs Denton said: “We just went along with it. I didn’t get evacuated. Others did, but I didn’t want to be away from home.”

She met her husband, Robert, while he was in the Royal Air Force in Hendon, north London, and they married in 1949 before he returned to his job in the print industry after the war.

The couple lived in the borough where he became a linotype writer for the Surrey Comet and they had one son together, Peter.

Mrs Denton believes the fact she didn’t smoke and not ‘living the high life’ has contributed to her living for so long.

She added: “Live your life the best you can. Live sensibly, try to eat well and don’t smoke.”

Amy Woodgate manager Dian Simpson said: “Hilda is a quiet lady who is grateful for everything anyone does for her. She was absolutely thrilled with her party, she smiled from the moment she woke up until she went to bed.

“It’s hard to believe she is 102, watching her dancing!”