FORMER printer and lover of poetry and bingo Dorothy Larner has died eight months after her 105th birthday.

The great-great-grandmother was born on March 20, 1909, and her earliest memories included zeppelins flying over London and South East England during the First World War.

Born in Bedfont near Staines, she grew up in Harrow where she lived for many years with her late husband Frederick.

Later in life, speaking to the Daily Echo, she recalled a childhood visit to Highcliffe Castle with the Rosebuds – a precursor to the Brownies – where the group broke in on a rainy night to find somewhere dry to sleep.

She met Frederick at their mutual workplace – HM Stationary Office – and married in 1931 before starting a family printing business which they operated before and after the Second World War.

Mrs Larner moved to the New Forest after her husband died in 1990 and lived at the Westmoreland Court sheltered housing scheme in Hordle for the next 23 years, only moving into the Gatehouse Care Home in Barton in the last year of her long life.

Always strong-minded, Mrs Larner credited her long life in part to spending a lot of time with friends, enjoying life and also to her genes, as her mother, sister and grandparents all lived to the grand old age of 99.

In her later years she enjoyed bingo and crosswords, and could still remember word for word the poetry she loved in her youth.

In March this year she celebrated her landmark birthday with her daughters – then aged 81 and 79 – with bingo and champagne, and also received her second card of congratulations from the Queen.

She had three children, Maureen, Valerie and Jeffrey, who died in his 60s, as well as four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

A funeral service was held on Wednesday at Hordle parish church.