Gizmo kids sing for 100-year-old on her birthday

Ethel Knowles, who lives at Bannow Retirement Home in Quarry Hill, St Leonards, marked her milestone birthday last Saturday.

She received a card from the Queen, a visit from deputy mayor Alan Roberts and children from Gizmo, who sang Happy Birthday.

Staff at the home also made a celebratory cake for her.

The pensioner was born in Sheffield and moved to London with her family in 1920 when she was 10.

Ethel worked in Harrods in London from 1928 to 1930 selling ladies' hats. She met her future husband Billy there who worked in the bedding department.

After war broke out in 1939 she spent the early part working for the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) before working for the Salvation Army in Streatham from 1943 to 1945.

When war ended she stayed at home looking after her mother Alice until she died in 1972.

Her husband worked at Harrods until her died in 1970.

Ethel later lived in Oxford in the late 1990s on her own before succumbing to dementia. She moved into Bannow Retirement Home in June 2008.