AN INTREPID adventurer celebrated her 100th birthday in style with a performance by an old-school crooner and plenty of fizz.

Enid Gray marked the momentous occasion with her family and boyfriend Derek Vaneerde, who she describes as her “toy boy”.

Derek, who is 14 years her junior, described how the pair met in 1990.

He said: “I was a farmer and we had a pick your own soft fruit enterprise.

“Enid used to come to pick fruit but she soon had me picking the fruit for her.”

Enid’s daughter, Jane Gray, recalled her mother’s many travels, capers and exploits through the years.

Enid and Derek went hang-gliding when she was 80, during which time, Jane said Enid developed a fondness for her dashing Italian instructor.

Then there was a trip across Cambodia in a hot air balloon aged 90 and a journey on the Palace on Wheels train in India when she was 95.

But it all started in Brighton for Enid, who was born in Loder Road in 1919 to Sarah Ellen and Percy Newman.

Her father was the chief engineer on the minesweeper HMS Valerian and she was christened on board the ship.

The family moved to Portsmouth when Enid was five,to be closer to Percy.

But her father died in a tragic incident in which his ship became trapped in a hurricane near Bermuda when she was just seven.

Enid moved back to Brighton five years later and went to Varndean Girls School.

Shortly after this she met her husband, Reg Gray, at the Top Rank ice rink on Brighton seafront.

Enid took a tumble on the ice but Reg was quick to skate over and pick her up, and romance soon blossomed between the pair.

They married in 1937 and moved to Temple Street.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Reg was called into the special forces.

He endured tough conditions as he fought behind enemy lines in Burma for three years, but survived and returned home to Temple Street.

There the pair trained as hairdressers, with Reg learning the trade before passing his skills on to Enid.

They had their first child, Lynne, in January 1946 and Jane followed three years later in April 1949.

The family moved a few doors down to number 37 for the princely sum of £3,000 while continuing to run their flourishing business, Gray Ladies Hairdressers.

As a family, the Gray brigade continued to travel extensively.

They drove through Europe with Jane perched atop a biscuit tin between her parents as they made their way to Italy.

But in 1974 disaster struck.

Jane said: “My father died in 1974 and I felt fortunate that he had been able to walk me down the aisle and give me away at St Peter’s Church in Preston Park when I married my husband Roger in 1973. It was my father, who suggested that I kept my maiden name.”

Enid carried on the business and did not retire until the ripe old age of 91. She lived in Temple Street until last year, when she moved to Middleton Grove care home in nearby Portland Road.

In the years between she continued to travel, visiting daughter Jane when she lived in Hong Kong in the 1980s.

Enid found herself in a spot of bother when she first tried to visit the area years earlier. She left her passport at home, thinking she didn’t need it because it was a former British colony, and soon found herself back in Brighton.

“That was a quick trip,” her mother exclaimed as she met her at the door.

Enid celebrated her 100th birthday with a party at the care home on Thursday.

She received a letter from the Queen and a visit from deputy mayor Councillor Alan Robins and shared a few glasses of wine with Derek, surrounded by family and friends.

Jane said: “It is impossible to put into words the life of this lovely remarkable lady who has lived it to the full.”