A former seamstress turned Land Girl has celebrated her 100th birthday with a family party in St Albans.

Irene Parson was born in 1918 in Haringey, North London, just at the end of World War One.

After finishing a four year dressmaking apprenticeship at Bourne and Hollingsworth in Oxford Street, London, Irene enrolled into the Land Army with the outbreak of World War Two.

She was posted to the Isle of Wight - where she met her husband to-be Arthur. They married in Kingsbury in February 1945 and honeymooned in Brighton, later having two children together called Linda and Marion.

Irene worked as a dressmaker until she was married and was a stay at home mum when her daughters were born.

After Arthur passed away in 2001, Irene moved to Davis Court in St Albans,

She said: “I was with family on my birthday but we had a terrific party in the lounge, it went very well.”

Irene has no secret to a long life, except to “just live a normal life and enjoy it”. She now has two grandchildren and two great granddaughters.