FORMER hotelier and centenarian, Hilda Baybutt of Westbourne, has died at the age of 108.

Mrs Baybutt married husband, Arthur, in 1933 at the age of 23 and the couple moved from Manchester to Bournemouth to purchase a hotel in the town.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Hilda had said that she remembers bombing in Bournemouth, from eight planes which flew over the area from France.

She had said that Debenhams department store was hit, along with a pub in Richmond Hill, with a bomb going through the cellar.

A bomb also hit the Dalkeith steps on Old Christchurch Road, just an hour before a daily film screening which was attended by soldiers.

Hilda and Arthur went on to welcome their only child, Nicholas, in 1943, which was 10 years after they were married.

In the late 1950s the family purchased the Woodcroft Tower Hotel in Gervis Road, which they ran until the couple retired.

Arthur died in 1990 and from then on, Hilda lived by herself a flat in West Cliff Road until the age of 106, when she moved to Glenhurst Manor care home which is based directly opposite the block of flats.

For her 102 birthday she enjoyed a flight in helicopter at Bournemouth Airport, just two days after watching the aircraft flying over the cafe.

However she kept her feet firmly on the ground for her 103 and 104 birthdays by enjoying the annual family meal at the Miramar Hotel with her son, Nicholas, and three grandsons, James, Edward and Charles.

She suggested that the reason she may have lived such a long life could be due to living in Bournemouth on her 105 birthday.

She said: "I don’t have anything special that I do every day, apart from the fact that I used to play bridge, but then perhaps it’s down to living in Bournemouth."

She took another trip in a helicopter for her 106 birthday, which she described as 'the best birthday ever', before landing at Chewton Glen for afternoon tea.

Hilda celebrated her 107 and 108 birthdays at Glenhurst Manor care home and cherished getting to meet her first great-grandchild in May this year.

Her funeral will take place at Bournemouth Crematorium on Monday, November 28 at 3pm.