The second oldest woman in Britain has died from natural causes at the age of 112.
Violet Davies-Evans - who was the third oldest person in the country - lived through 27 prime ministers, five monarchs and survived both world wars.
She was just one day younger than the the two oldest people in the UK - who share the birth date of March 29, 1908.
Violet, of Vi as she was known to her family, had lived independently up until the age of 106 before moving into Ashwood Nursing Home, in Spalding, Lincs., in 2014.
She died peacefully in her sleep at the care home on Tuesday.
Violet was born in Sutterton, Lincs., only seven years after the death of Queen Victoria and the year the boy scout movement was founded.
She credited her longevity with keeping her brain active by playing Scrabble and doing daily cryptic crosswords in the newspaper.
Throughout her life, she would never wash her face, preferring cleansing creams which kept her skin looking younger.
Violet also rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous after becoming a beauty specialist for Elizabeth Arden – founder of the renowned cosmetics company.
Nephew Mike Lawton, 74, said her aunt was “definitely a real character” and at times a cross between Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances and actress Joan Sanderson.
He said: “My wife was a little overawed at first when we would go there for tea because Vi would have china tea cups and used tongs to get the cubes of sugar.
“She was once taken shopping to Peterborough by a friend and they ended up with quite a few bags between them. ‘Get a porter,’ she said.
“So in some respects Vi was almost from a different era. But she was a smiling and joyful lady who liked socialising and eating out and loved to sing.
“Vi was very lucid until quite recently and enjoyed talking to the staff at Ashwood, who were so kind to her. She was happy to move in there as it seemed like a hotel.”
After a first job at drapery and haberdashery store Violet began working in London for Elizabeth Arden and had several well-to-do clients.
Violet (née Head) married her talented and well-respected teacher husband Hubert in 1938 and together they enjoyed a busy social life with famous people as friends.
At the start of World War Two, Elizabeth Arden offered Violet the relative safety of a job in America but her employee turned it down, preferring to stay in Marble Arch.
Mike added: “Vi felt she had a job to do here and went on to fire-watch on the roof tops in London."
At that point, her day job was personal assistant to Chris Hinton (later Baron Hinton of Bankside) in the Ministry of Supply.
Mike said during one hotel stay for a conference, a man burst in on Violet as she was having a soak in the communal bathroom.
She quickly grabbed her towel and put it over her head.
Mike added: “I asked her why she didn’t cover her body She replied: ‘Because I would have met him the next day and I didn’t want him to remember my face’.
“She had a good sense of fun.”
Mike said his aunt had a significant influence on his life, helping to shape his behaviour and outlook as a teenager.
He added: “Vi was formative in my life. She and my uncle bought eight acres of land with a bungalow on in Oxfordshire. I would spend all my summer holidays there.
“I can remember going to (West End actor) Alastair Sim’s on a Sunday morning for cocktails with George Cole.
"Spalding in the 1950s was fairly parochial so to suddenly be able to mix with those kind of people was really quite something.”
When Hubert died in 1975, Violet moved back to Lincolnshire, first living with her widowed sister May in Osbournby.
When she later moved to Spalding, Mike and wife Claire would visit regularly from their home in Warrington, taking her a month’s supply of frozen meals.
Violet also had a penchant for red wine and even up to and beyond 100 years old she would order a case from specialist Laithwaite’s.
The firm recognised her 100th birthday in 2008 with a delivery of her favourite, Black Stump, and a fine bottle of English Champagne from owner Tony’s wife’s vineyard.
Bob Weighton, of Hampshire, currently holds the title of Britain's oldest man at 112 while Joan Hocquard, from Poole, Dorset, who was born on the same day, is the oldest woman in the country.
