Mary Dorothy Elphick, better known as Dot or Dorothy, turned 100 years old on Thursday, July 10, with a bash at the Woodfalls Inn in Woodfalls, near Salisbury.

Along with her friends came a card from King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Proudly showing it to the press, she said: “It’s great, I just wish I were able to walk and hear.

“But I can still remember the details of what I used to do at school and everything. I can remember it all.”

Mrs Elphick during her time in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (Image: Charles Elliman)

Mrs Elphick was born in Glasgow in 1925, the youngest of three siblings, and was spoiled rotten by her parents.

Her father, John Hay Duncan, used to take the family on fishing trips up the River Clyde every summer.

Fondly recalling her Scottish childhood, she said: “I had a very good upbringing.”

Her childhood was interrupted when the war began (she was only 14), and after being evacuated, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945, “to see the world.”

The world became Wilton, and it was there that she met the love of her life, Jack Duncan, the owner of the renowned Norman Brook gentlemen’s outfitter at 142 Fisherton Street, Salisbury.

Mr Elphick passed some years ago, but in their early years, Mrs Elphick said they used to enjoy bombing up and down the county on their motorbike and sidecar.

Her husband rode, at first, but Mrs Elphick soon had the need for speed. She said: “I went as fast as I possibly could, which was very fast.

“We did enjoy it. We went on motorbikes for a few years, and my mother was not happy.”

After leaving the ATS, Mrs Elphick worked on the railway until her daughter, Sue Grant, 64, came along in 1960. Since then, she has thrown herself into voluntary roles and supporting local organisations.

Mrs Grant, from near Fleet, was asked how it felt to have a mother who was 100.

Joyce Carnegie, from Comrie, Perthshire, with Dorothy Elphick, 100, from Woodfalls (Image: Charles Elliman)

She said: “I’m delighted. She’s as tough as old boots. She’s the last of the Duncans of that generation.”

Mrs Elphick’s family came from far and wide to pay their respects to the family “matriarch,” with some coming from as far as the Highlands.

Joyce Carnegie, from Comrie, Perthshire, said: “We sent her up for my dad’s 85th and hid her behind a curtain. She’s always keen to keep up with everybody.”

Julia Whitmarsh, 78, from Downton, said: “It’s amazing, isn’t it? And she’s a champion ‘scrabbler’ – the only trouble is she brings in Scottish words we don’t know.”