Burma escape part of adventure

Mabel Lucas began her long and varied life in Burma, where her father served in the forces.

She lived in Moulmein and married Henry Charles Lucas in 1929, but was forced to flee when Japan invaded Burma in the latter years of World War II.

Her family say she had just hours to gather her possessions and make her escape to India, where she waited several months for her husband to join her.

They had lost everything and came to England after the war to try and rebuild their lives.

The couple and their sons, Henry and Charles, moved to a farm in Devon that Mabel helped her husband to run.

Years later, they settled in Sussex and Mabel took a job as a housekeeper at the home of the young Alistair Campbell and his family.

Mabel, who has five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, was a keen golfer and horse-rider and she placed bets until she was well into her 90s.

After her husband's death in 1974, she moved to Warwickshire and became a familiar face at the bookmakers.

"She was a horsewoman, so she knew the form and was very successful," said her son Henry.

"I don't think the bookmakers liked her going in very much, because she often won - they made her keep her voice down when she placed a bet and stopped her talking to anyone, because she knew so much and they all wanted her tips."

In 2001, Mabel moved to Inwood House, in Salisbury, where her family gathered on Monday to help celebrate her big day with cake and champagne.

They were worried Mabel would not be able to receive her birthday card and telegram from the Queen because her birth certificate, proving her age, was destroyed in Burma during the war.

But luckily, after a two-month search in the British Library, they discovered her baptism certificate, which confirms she has reached her centenary.

Buckingham Palace sent the card, making Mabel's 100th birthday celebration complete.