Florrie has a high old time on her 114th birthday

Europe's oldest woman, Florrie Baldwin, yesterday reached another milestone as she celebrated her 114th birthday.

The great-great-grandmother celebrated the big day with her family, care home residents and the obligatory telegram from the Queen – her 11th.

The supercentenarian, who was three when the Boer War broke out and who lived in a quieter world without TV or mobile phones, lives at Radcliffe Gardens Nursing Home in Pudsey, Leeds.

Mrs Baldwin was joined by her 89-year-old daughter Maisie Worsnop, two grandsons, great and great-great-grandchildren to mark her milestone year.

Her grandson, David Worsnop, 64, said: "When I'm chatting to people I don't know well and I tell them I've got to go and see my grandmother they often give me a funny look.

"When my mother told the girl in the post office she wanted a Mother's Day card, the assistant looked at her as if she was crazy.

"But my grandmother is amazing, every year we say this will most likely be the last year we will do this. We have been saying that for 14 years but she keeps battling on. She takes no medication at all and she never has, which I think is one of the reasons why she's lived so long. She never smoked and very, very rarely had anything to drink.

"I put it down to work, she didn't leave her job until she was 75. Hard work and healthy living, she never smoked, hardly drank and never took a pill in her life.

"Hard work and determination, I think that's her secret.

"She's very strong-willed. I think that's the main thing, her strength of character."

Mr Worsnop said they had a special birthday cake in the shape of a basket with 114 roses in it for Mrs Baldwin's big day plus bucks fizz.

"As always she had a good look at this year's telegram – though her eyesight isn't the best," he said. Mrs Baldwin, who is the fourth oldest person in the world, grew up in a Victorian terrace with her two brothers and five sisters in Hunslet, Leeds. She lived most of her life in Woodhouse, Leeds.

She has lived through some of the 20th century's most significant moments including two world wars, the creation of the NHS, women winning the right to vote and when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.

Her family recall the memories of British history that she relayed to them throughout their lifetimes. Some of her earliest memories include the Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War in 1899 and, at the age of four, being taken to Leeds Central Station by her mother for a visit by Queen Victoria.

Mr Worsnop said: "It's quite amazing what she's seen. She can remember milk being delivered by pony and trap.

"She can remember street parties after the Boer War when soldiers were dressed in red, and a zeppelin flying over Leeds."

Mrs Baldwin started work at a jewellers shop in Leeds. Later she worked as a wages clerk in an engineering firm, retiring at the age of 75.

"She thrived on work. When she eventually did retire they had to employ three people to do her job. She was a devil for bringing work home with her," said Mr Worsnop.

She married painter and decorator Clifford Baldwin in 1919, and following her husband's death in 1973, she lived alone until the age of 105, when she moved to Radcliffe Gardens.

Her grandson says Mrs Baldwin has always been independent and laughs as he recalls the memory of finding her standing on her sideboard at the age of 102 changing her net curtains.