“I’M quite happy to wait until next year!”

That was the magnanimous approach of Alton centenarian Peg Williams, who celebrated her 104th birthday in March – 12 months shy of a second congratulatory telegram from the Queen.

“You get a telegram at 100 and then another when you are 105,” she said during a birthday party in her honour surrounded by her family and friends at Ladyplace Court in Alton, where she has lived for 25 years.

She herself was born in the last century, in Surbiton, Surrey, on March 23, 1912, and her father worked in Covent Garden.

“But, of course, mum didn’t go to work, married women didn’t then, she looked after me and my brother and sister,” said Peg.

A clever child, Peg went to the girls’ grammar school in nearby Kingston-upon-Thames and then trained as a secretary.

“I was 17 when I began working for the plane manufacturers Vickers Armstrong in London, and I used to go up by train,” she said, adding that her career ended when she married her husband, John, in 1936. They were married for 58 years.

“Once you married you had to leave your job in those days,” she said.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, John, who was in the Army, saw action overseas and Peg went back to live with her parents. After the war, she and John moved to Pinner in Middlesex and their daughter Gill was born, and later the family moved again to Tolworth.

Peg and John then opened a greengrocers in Worthing in West Sussex.

“We were near the sea and it was a busy and happy time,” she said.

One of her happiest moments was when her daughter, at age 41, gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl. Now she also has two great grandchildren, Rosie and Joshua.

When they retired, Peg and John decided to move closer to their family and bought a flat in Ladyplace, but John died four years later.

“I have been very happy here and have nice friends and I love being with my family. I don’t got out very much now because of my balance but otherwise I am very healthy and I don’t feel 104.”

There was wine – Peg admits she enjoys a glass of wine or a Baileys – and a spread of food at her party, held in the lounge at Ladyplace, and a special birthday cake. All around her were balloons and cards and a pile of presents and everyone drank a toast to Peg to wish her happy birthday.

Daughter Gill said: “We all wanted to make it a very special occasion for mum, who is truly amazing and an inspiration to us all.”

She put her mum’s secret for her fantastic age down to “an incredibly positive outlook”. “We are all proud of her,” she said.