EMMA ‘Dolly’ Wilkins celebrated her 100th birthday in Bigbury-on-Sea this week surrounded by family and friends.

Dolly was born in the Woolwich area of London on April 5, 1916, and was adopted at a very young age by Mr & Mrs Doffman.

After leaving school at the age of 12 - as was common in those days - Dolly went to work for her father’s car sales business. It was here, at the age of 17, that she met her first husband John Roles. Dolly then left home to go and live with John and his family.

They wanted to get married, but could not find Dolly’s birth certificate. So John had to pay a visit to Dolly’s former neighbours to find out her birth name. He then spent three days in Somerset House searching for Dolly’s birth certificate.

When he eventually found it, Dolly and John got married at Woolwich registry office and went on to have two children, Jean and David.

During the Second World War, Dolly was evacuated to Devon and spent many happy times with her sister-in-law Sissy. The two would ride up to London regularly on Sissy’s Norton motorbike, and became the best of friends.

She recalls one occasion when the motorbike broke down and needed some rope to fix it. Dolly jumped off the bike and ran into someone’s garden to steal a washing line to fix it!

Their mischief also saw them stealing wood from a new housing development in Newton Abbot to build an air raid shelter. This was less than successful, as the shelter flooded when it rained!

Dolly and John later settled in Devon, leasing Laurel House from Lord and Lady Clifford as a bed and breakfast. Later, John became ill and died from cancer when Dolly was in her 50s.

After John’s death, Dolly moved to Kingskerswell and ran the local tea rooms, where she also grew her own vegetables and apple trees in the garden.

She was also a cook at Rockland’s Boys School and during the summer holidays, she would invite the boys over for tea, six at a time.

In 1980, she met Burt and they got married at Newton Abbot registry office a year later. They had two children together, Les and Christine.

In September 2012, Burt and Dolly moved in to Korniloff residential home in Bigbury-on-Sea, and continued their very happy married life together until Burt died in 2014.

When Dolly was asked for her secret to such a long and happy life, she replied: ‘Lots of love! I’ve been very lucky to have had two very loving husbands, whom I loved dearly.’

Dolly has eight grandchildren, six great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren!