THE Cottage Hotel in Hope Cove was the setting for a 100th birthday party last Saturday.

Dorothy ‘Dot’ Vere celebrated her centenary year on November 28, although, like the Queen, she has two birthdays.

Mrs Vere has always celebrated her birthday on November 16, but her birth certificate states her date of birth as November 30. According to her son Michael, he believes this could have been due to a twist of fate when her birth was registered.

Back when she was born, birth certificates had just become compulsory, with a fine imposed if you didn’t register a birth within a certain amount of time. Sometimes, to prevent having to pay the fine, families who missed the deadline would adjust the birth date slightly.

Mrs Vere is the last survivor of a family of ten siblings, by quite a distance. She left school at 14, although her son says she wanted to stay. She went to work in a factory making ladies underwear.

She met and married Bill Vere, and the couple had two children, Michael Vere, who lives in Kingsbridge, and his older sister Mary Adderton, who lives in the Peak District.

Mrs Vere worked in the same industry until her husband’s furnishing business, Vere Bedding, found its feet and she stopped working when her children were around 18 and 11-years-old.

Mrs Vere moved to the South Hams from Cheshire with her husband Bill in 1977, where she made a name for herself as a great Bridge player and became president of the Kingsbridge Bridge Club.

Mrs Vere used to play Bridge five times a week and her memory was immaculate, her party-piece being her ability to recite Richard Harris Barham’s poem ‘The Jackdaw Of Rheims’ which runs to 160-lines and four sides of A4. Sadly, Mrs Vere now suffers from dementia.

Her husband Bill was a skilled snooker player who used to give lessons from their garage in Highfield Drive, Kingsbridge, on a snooker table he bought from the Crucible and had previously been used for the World Final Championships.

Mrs Vere celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends.