She was 18 at the start of the First World War, 52 when the NHS was formed and had been a pensioner for more than a decade when Neil Armstrong reached the moon.

And tomorrow, great-great-grandmother Florrie Baldwin, who last year became the oldest person in Europe, will be celebrating her 114th birthday.

The supercentenarian, who lives at Radcliffe Gardens Nursing Home in Pudsey, is to mark the milestone at a special tea with residents and members of her family, including her 89-year-old daughter, two grandsons, great and great-great-grandchildren.

Her grandson David Worsnop, 64, said: “Every year we say this will most likely be the last year we will do this. We have been saying that for 14 years but she keeps battling on.

“She takes no medication at all and she never has, which I think is one of the reasons why she’s lived so long. She never smoked and very, very rarely had anything to drink.

“I think you can put her long life down to hard work and determination.

“She’s very strong-willed. I think that’s the main thing, her strength of character.”

Mrs Baldwin, who is the fourth oldest person in the world, grew up in a Victorian terrace with her two brothers and five sisters.

Some of her earliest memories include the Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War in 1899 and, at the age of four, being taken to Leeds Central Station by her mother for a visit by Queen Victoria.

Mr Worsnop said: “It’s quite amazing what she’s seen. She can remember milk being delivered by pony and trap.

“She can remember street parties after the Boer War when soldiers were dressed in red, and a zeppelin flying over Leeds.”

Mrs Baldwin started work at a jewellers before spending more than 30 years as a clerk for Geo Brays Engineering, retiring at the age of 75.

Her grandson said: “She thrived on work. When she eventually did retire they had to employee three people to do her job.

“She was a devil for bringing work home with her.”

Mrs Baldwin married painter and decorator Clifford Baldwin in 1919. Following her husband’s death in 1973, she lived alone until the age of 105, when she moved to Radcliffe Gardens.

Mr Worsnop said: “When I’m chatting to people I don’t know well and I tell them I’ve got to go and see my grandmother they often give me a funny look.

“When my mother told the girl in the post office she wanted a Mother’s Day card, the assistant looked at her as if she was a bit funny and she had to explain!”