Triple figures for Bexhill's Ruby Bentley

Ruby, of Collington House, has had a long association with the East Sussex coast, though was born in Kirby Muxloe, near Leicester - the youngest of Ruth and Walter Foulds’ five daughters.

Sadly, Ruby was only 14 when her mother died, and after leaving school she worked for the Leicester City Gas Department, demonstrating cookery in its showroom. There she met her future husband, Roland Bentley, and they were married in 1931.

Their son, John, was born in 1933 and, now 77, has been helping his mother mark her magnificent milestone. He said: “She told me recently that she never expected to live so long to see her baby become an old man!”

During the Second World War Ruby worked with the Red Cross and later rose to the rank of district officer.

After the war, she and her husband took a bungalow in St Leonards-on-Sea and son John went to Hastings Grammar School.

After studying physiotherapy, Ruby worked for a time at the White Rock Baths, Hastings, and also treated private patients. Various house moves to Hastings, Battle and then Danecourt Close, Bexhill, then followed.

John married in 1967 and Ruby has two grandchildren, Ruth and Peter, and two great-children, Edward and Thomas.

After her husband fell ill, Ruby cared for him for many years until his death in 1974, and then moved to a flat in Cranfield Road, Bexhill, before finally settling into Collington House. She has a strong Christian faith and even at 100 still leads a meditation group for some friends.

Of her 100 years, she said: “I’ve seen so many things - two world wars, cars, Zeppelins, giant modern aircraft, television, computers and even men on the moon”

LEFT: Ruby Bentley