Brighton woman to celebrate 103rd birthday

Daughter Janet Fenner said: “She lives quite independently, she’s lived in Brighton nearly all her life, she’s lived quite an adventurous life in one way.

“She still does her own cooking. There’s an old people’s club in her flats, so they take her out for a meal, and then the family will be taking her out this Saturday”

Mrs Rudland, who lives in Manor Place, was born in London weeks before the First World War, but she grew up in Brighton, and remembers parts of what was going on when she was growing up, including the tsunami that hit Brighton and Hove in 1929.

“Her memory goes right back to the First World War, and she remembers a bomb being dropped on the London Bridge," said Mrs Fenner.

“She remembers that because a woman fainted and that was one of her earliest memories, and she would have been about two, three years old.

“Her brain is a lot sharper than mine.”

Spending much of her life as a housewife, Mrs Rudland, who was widowed in 1960, did work as a cleaner at Brighton Station's depot for a spell, where she earned the equivalent of £1.50 a week

Mrs Rudland received her letter from the Queen when she turned 100, but will now have to wait until she turns 105 in order to receive another one.

Mrs Fenner said many would say that her mother is a ‘charitable woman’, always finding a way to help someone, and many people will know her as a considerable and lovely person.