FORMER school teacher Violet Curtis celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends.

She received her telegram from the Queen at Hyde Crook Nursing Home at Frampton, near Dorchester.

Mrs Curtis taught at schools in East Grinstead, Teddington and Burnley and was still marking exam papers at the age of 90.

She moved to Dorset three years ago with her son Simon, a retired lecturer at Manchester University, who was then chairman of the Thomas Hardy Society based in Dorchester.

Mr Curtis, who regularly visits his mother at the care home, said it was an extraordinary day as she was joined by her family including four great-grandchildren.

He said his mother was an accomplished piano player and keen painter who had exhibited and sold paintings in Northamptonshire.

Mrs Curtis's late husband Douglas, a vicar at St Johns Gannow in Burnley, became the secretary of Christian Aid in 1951.

The couple lived in Towcester for 48 years before Douglas retired in 1980. He died in 1999.

Mrs Curtis had two children, Simon and John, a naval officer who worked at Yeovilton, who died in 1996.