Emsworth ukulele player Edna Blott celebrates 100th birthday at Brookfield Hotel

Still in good health and optimistic as ever, Edna celebrated her centenary at the Brookfield Hotel, Emsworth, with about 20 of her family and friends.

‘It’s unbelievable. I’m quite excited about it,’ adds Edna, a resident at The Oaks care home in Emsworth.

Born on July 24, 1922, in Southend, Edna grew up with her parents Florence and William Barnet. Despite being an only child, Edna recalls happy memories living by the sea where she’d often go swimming and paddling with her father.

As a little girl she enjoyed trips out to the Kursaal fairground, an icon of Southend seafront which has since closed.

She says: ‘I didn’t care about money. I had a good, happy life with mum and dad.

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‘Living by the sea we used to have lots of fun. I didn't worry about much. My dad taught me to ride a bike and I'd ride it along the seafront.’

Edna went to an art school in Southend aged 13 before getting her first job as a window dresser in Oxford Street, London, at John Lewis at 16.

But not long after starting, Edna was forced to leave as the war broke out.

‘My job was lovely,’ she explains. ‘It was lovely to know you were organising something very fashionable in the window.

‘But when the war broke out my dad wanted me to stay in Southend. We used to go in the air raid shelter in the back garden.

‘We felt safe down there. We enjoyed it. We’d play our music.’

Soon after Edna turned 16 she met her sweetheart, Laurence. Despite growing up two roads away from her they only got to know one another after meeting in a park with a group of their friends in Southend.

‘We went to Canada on holiday after we got married and we stayed there for a year,’ says Edna.

‘He was dressed in his navy outfit because he was in the war. We had lots of people at our wedding because both families came from London and from Southend.’

The Blotts had three children, Donna who visits Edna regularly and Garrick and Sarah who have both died.

Edna also has five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

During her working life, Edna was a typist and after having Donna the family moved to Portsmouth where Edna worked in the dockyard doing secretarial work.

Reflecting on the most important lesson she’s learnt in life, Edna adds: ‘Don’t do anything too outrageous. Have an enjoyable life – that’s very important.’