ELSIE Duffy celebrated her 106th birthday at the Cottage Hotel in Hope Cove this week.

Her daughter Lindsay James said: ‘She had a fantastic birthday, with a lovely lunch followed by a party downstairs. She’s on good form, is as fit as a fiddle and is thoroughly enjoying life!’

Before settling in Kingsbridge, Elsie travelled all over the world. Her father was in the army during the First World War and she moved with him as he was posted to different barracks around the world, including Lucknow in the north of India, where she lived for four years as a child.

Her travelling continued when she married her husband Maurice, an RAF ground crewman, and she followed him from base to barrack every couple of years. After the war, Maurice was stationed in Germany, and Elsie witnessed the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

Elsie and Maurice moved to Kingsbridge in 1997 to be closer to their daughter Anne - coming down to visit one day and putting an offer on a place right there and then. Maurice unfortunately succumbed to emphysema two years later.

Elsie said: ‘I just love Kingsbridge, I couldn’t be any happier here. The people are lovely, the residents in our block are fantastic and so friendly.

‘If you go and sit on the benches, someone will always come and talk to you, that doesn’t happen in other places, they look at you as if you’re bonkers, but I prefer life to be a little bit bonkers, it’s much more fun.’

When asked for her secret to such a long and happy life, Elsie said: ‘A hot toddy before bed every night, with a little bit of whiskey!’