THE First World War was nine years in the future when Kitty Brown was born.

When the guns fell silent to end that terrible conflict, Kitty was a day short of her 13th birthday.

She was living in the house in Ludlow that was to be her home for more than 100 years.

Kitty was 106 last Saturday and although two years ago she made a concession to time by moving into the Alexandra House Residential Home, her zest for life is undiminished.

She was the youngest of a family of five girls and two boys.

In the week when the town remembered the fallen of two world wars, Kitty still remembers the telegram that brought the news that her eldest brother Donald had been killed fighting for his country in the First World War.

During the Second World War, Kitty worked at a factory at Peaton repairing aircraft fuel tanks. She took care of a niece and nephew evacuated from London, as well as caring for her elderly widowed mother and brother and helping on the family smallholding.

She married her husband Ralph, a local man who served in the Royal Navy, in 1954. The couple did not have children but Kitty always warmly welcomed her siblings, cousins and generations of nieces and nephews and many friends to visit for tea and for holidays.

Kitty has a very strong faith in God and is a great supporter of St Peter’s Church in Stanton Lacy.