A strong-willed centenarian who put together aircraft and ammunitions during World War Two believes people’s philosophy for life must be "you always have to go on".

Dorothy Connor, celebrated turning 100 with a celebration at her home, Honey Pot Cottage, in Glebe Road, Ashtead, on Wednesday, April 22.

The great-grandmother, who was born in Holborn, central London, and suffered from rickets - vitamin D and calcium deficiency caused by a lack of sunlight as a child, said she had "a beautiful day" with her family.

She left school before she was 14 and got a job as a dressmaker in London.

Shortly after the war started in 1939, she married her sweetheart Arthur Connor, who was then called up for service.

Mrs Connor said: "I went to work in an ordinance factory in Upper Thames Street making war department bits and pieces for the army and the navy.

"It was all ‘hush, hush’. It was a big and important factory.

"After that I was very lucky to get into an aircraft factory making big parts for big planes. It was all very interesting."

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Dorothy Connor with Hazel Humphreys, Sheila Saxby, Dave Connor and Libby Connor 

The 100-year-old said the war brought personal tragedy: "Where I lived got bombed. 

"We were going to work one day and my father was killed in the City of London as we were walking through the Inns of Court.

"I had no home, no dad and my husband was somewhere else."

After the war, in 1946, she and Arthur moved to East Dulwich.

Their only child Dave Connor was born three years later.

Mrs Connor helped her husband in his new job of running a sandwich shop in Cannon Street for 13 years.

After he died in 1990, Mrs Connor went to live with Dave and his wife Libby in Ewell Village.

The trio moved to Ashtead in 1993.

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Dorothy Connor looking at old photos of herself and her family 

Her son said: "She would do anything for anyone.

"She is very resourceful and has got that old Churchillian spirit."

Mrs Connor added: "I’ve got through it all. You have to keep going.

"When you’re alone you either go down or go on.

"You always have to go on."

The centenarian has featured in two photo books by photographic publishers Francis Frith, by whom she was snapped in Surrey as a young girl.