A CENTENARIAN who has lived through two World Wars says youngsters should make the most of peace time possibilities.

Kathleen Dilley was celebrating her 103rd birthday at the Barford Court care home in Hove this week.

The great, great, grandmother was born in Richmond in 1915, just a year into the First World War, and grew up in Stoke Newington.

After working in finance, she met her husband with whom she had two children, and was a volunteer ambulance driver for the elderly between the age of 30 and 75.

She celebrated her birthday with pals at the care home and was asked about what life lessons she would share with young people.

They describe her as a modest but also inspirational woman.

“The possibilities of what can be achieved during peace time are endless, I would urge younger generations to appreciate peace time,” she said.

In her lifetime she has experienced huge changes. Prime Minister David Lloyd George was part of a generation who pledged that the First World War, or the Great War would be the one to end all others.

This week we will mark the centenary of the end of that conflict, which is commemorated with Remembrance services on Sunday, November 11.

Mrs Dilley would have been just weeks old when mustard gas was used on the Western Front for the first time.

After Armistice, the Treaty of Versailles came in January1919, where the victorious powers sought to ensure Germany could never rise and start another war.

In 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain promised "peace in our time" after meeting Hitler, but that was shattered in September that year with the Nazi invasion of Poland.

Then after the war, Mrs Dilley was among those told by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan that Britons had "never had it so good".

And luckily for younger generations, there have been no major wars which have caused the devastation known in the first half of her life.

At the care home run by the Royal Masonic Beneficial Institute in Hove, she had a tea party with presents, roses, cards, and of course a big cake.

Home manager Deidre Johnson said: “Kathleen is a truly remarkable woman and it was a privilege to celebrate her 103rd birthday here. Our staff think she is an inspiration and we are always asking her the secret to living to such an age.

“Her party was a great success, though she is a very modest person, so she does not like too much of a fuss.”