A FELIXSTOWE woman who lived most of her life in the same house in the town has celebrated her 100th birthday.Centenarian Charlotte Cade came to the resort just after the first world war and only moved out of the family home last year.

A FELIXSTOWE woman who lived most of her life in the same house in the town has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Centenarian Charlotte Cade came to the resort just after the first world war and only moved out of the family home last year.

Miss Cade was born in Grantham in 1909 when Edward VII was on the throne, and lived with her parents Harry and Charlotte in Ecclesfield, just north of Sheffield, until she was ten.

Her father was a doctor and when he took up a job opportunity to work in the laboratories at the new Ipswich Hospital, the family moved south.

“We looked at several houses in Ipswich and then my father said let's try Felixstowe, which at that time was still very much a village,” said Miss Cade.

They bought a house in Cobbold Road, Felixstowe, near what is now the Crescent car park, and Miss Cade went to Uplands, one of many private schools in the seaside town at the time.

“Afterwards, I went to Reading University to study horticulture but that was rather heavy work, so I graduated in floristry and then trained as a florist,” she said.

Miss Cade, who now lives at the Coniston residential home in Garfield Road, trained at Silvester's School of Floral Art in Baker Street in London. She then went on to work in shops in London before moving to Lincolnshire.

“My mother became ill with Parkinson's Disease around the time of the second world war and so I decided it was time to come home to Cobbold Road to look after her,” said Miss Cade, who recalled working in a canteen at the top of Bent Hill during the afternoons for her war-time service.

After the war she received the Order of the Red Triangle from the YMCA for her service.

She was also a keen member of the St John Ambulance, and a talented artist, who spent many hours studying nature and drawing pictures of plants, butterflies, moths, and other wildlife.