OXFORDSHIRE’S oldest woman, Elizabeth Carpenter, has celebrated her 107th birthday.

Mrs Carpenter had a special party with her family and friends at the Crown Nursing Home at Harwell, where she lives.

Mrs Carpenter, known as Queenie, was born Elizabeth Allen on December 20, 1901, at the White Hart pub in Didcot, which was run by her parents.

Edward VII had just ascended the throne and Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister.

Mrs Carpenter has lived through the reigns of seven monarchs and the Governments of 21 Prime Ministers.

She was two when the first aircraft flight took place in America and 11 when Louis Bleriot first flew across the English Channel.

She has seen aircraft become supersonic, the development of rockets and men walk on the moon.She lived through the two world wars and countless other conflicts.

When she was born, women were not allowed the vote. She was 17 before women over 30 got the vote and 27 before there was full female suffrage and she could vote herself.

In her lifetime, her home town has developed from a small farming community expanded by the railway to become the largest town in south Oxfordshire.

She has seen the rise of nuclear power with developments at Harwell and seen the sklyline of Didcot change with the advent of the power station.

Mrs Carpenter, one of three sisters, worked in a tobacconist’s before she married civil servant Frederick Carpenter in the 1920s.

They lived in Glyn Avenue, Didcot, and had one daughter, Dorothy, who was born in 1929 and died in 1990.

Mr Carpenter died in the late 1950s and Mrs Carpenter went on to become a full-time carer for her sister Dolly.

Her grand-daughter, Dr Emma Henderson, said: “She puts her longevity down to not drinking, not smoking, and living a healthy outdoor life.”

Care home manager May Sancio said: “We will be having a party with her and hope she enjoys it. But she does not communicate with people very well now. We are very proud of her and she is certainly the oldest woman in Oxfordshire.”