A FORMER Wimborne lollipop lady celebrated her 100th birthday at the Castle Dene care home in Bournemouth.

Ethel Smith was joined by three generations of her family for a party at the Care South home in Throop Road.

Born the year the First World War broke out, she grew up in Wiltshire with seven brothers and sisters, but after school she worked in service in Bournemouth.

After marrying her husband Reginald Smith, Mrs Smith moved to Southampton where she lived during the Second World War.

The pair had four children together, as well as an adopted son, and she has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

During the last 50 years of her life she worked as a lollipop lady at a school in Wimborne.