FORMER London journalist Gweneth Watson has died just days before her 101st birthday.

A ceremony to celebrate the great-grandmother's long life was held yesterday in Marlow on what would have been her birthday.

Gwen died of natural causes at the White Lodge Residential Home, in Bisham, last Tuesday following an operation on her hip last month.

Daughter Jenifer Buckingham said: "She will always be remembered as a resolute and gentle lady, a loving and caring wife, mother, grannie and great-grannie and will be greatly missed by all the family.

"The ceremony was a celebration of her life but also there is the sadness of her passing."

Gwen, who was born in 1900, lived through the Boer War, two World Wars, 20 Prime Ministers and four kings and two queens.

Mrs Buckingham added: "She was extremely well cared for at White Lodge for almost nine years she was very happy there."

The mother-of-two grew up in Cambridge where she studied at Perse School. She married her husband Richard in 1928 and moved to Sussex in 1936. The couple retired to Marlow to be nearer their daughter.

Gwen's husband died in 1978.

Gwen, who was cremated at Chiltern Crematorium in Amersham, leaves behind two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.