A RESIDENT of a Windermere nursing home has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Mary Greenwood nee Green, of Applethwaite Green nursing home was born in Braintree in Essex on December 2, 1914 to Charlotte and Charles Green. As a teenager she went into service and in 1932 worked as a nanny for a Serbian Ambassador in London.

Recalling those days, her daughter Jennifer Johnson said she compared it to Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey rolled into one.

Caring for the ambassador's children, Duchan and Malitza, she travelled to places like Switzerland, Belgrade and Venice.

In Switzerland, she saw Charlie Chaplin in the same hotel they were staying in and in Belgrade she met Kaiser Wilhelm the second, after his abdication as the last king of Germany.

After her time in service, she went to work in department store, Gorringes in London, where she met her husband Stanley Greenwood, who was a manager. They married on May 11, 1940, and had a son David in 1943 and daughter in 1946.

Mrs Greenwood lived in London during the Second World War and her husband was in the special constabulary. The family is distantly related to Sir Winston Churchill.

For a time, the family lived in Newcastle and eventually she moved to Carnforth and following the death of her husband in 1980, Mrs Greenwood moved to live in Windermere and has lived there ever since. She has five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Daughter Ms Johnson said: "Mother has lived a good life, she has had many good friends. She was a very popular woman in her day, she has kept herself active throughout her life, going to night schools to learn what goes on under the bonnet of a car, painting, and a wonderful bridge and bowls player. She is a great knitter, dressmaker, and she loved her garden."

"I put my mother's longevity down to the fact that she is a very strong woman - today her mind is intact. In a nutshell, mother is one of the 'hard nuts to crack' and at this rate may go one for along time yet."

She also received acknowledgement of the landmark from the Queen and from Ian Duncan-Smith, as works and pension secretary, and the Serbian Embassy.