A FORMER chambermaid has celebrated her 100th birthday in the same hotel where she worked more than 70 years ago.

Annie Reader marked the occasion by indulging in an afternoon tea at the Low Wood Bay Resort Hotel, on the shores of Windermere.

“I had a happy time here,” she said.

Born in Barrow, Mrs Reader was a chambermaid from 1930 to 33 at the hotel, when the top price of a double room was eight shillings and six pence.

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Working from a bedroom overlooking the water, she said she remembered watching the fatal crash of the famous land and water speed record holder Sir Henry Segrave in his boat Miss England II in June 1930.

Mrs Reader, who splits her time between her son and daughter-in-law’s house in Bowness and her own home in Croydon, went on to work at Fairfield School in Ambleside.

She remained living in Barrow until her 60s when she went to live with her son David, an ambassador with the Foreign office.

The centenarian was joined by her son and his wife Elaine for the celebration, above, on July 23.