FENLAND S oldest female resident, 106-year-old Alice Maud Ball, has died at her Wisbech home. Mrs Ball died last Wednesday at Somers Court, after being unwell for just a few days. Daughter, Sheila Oakes, said: It was a terrific achievement to get that f

FENLAND'S oldest female resident, 106-year-old Alice Maud Ball, has died at her Wisbech home.

Mrs Ball died last Wednesday at Somers Court, after being unwell for just a few days.

Daughter, Sheila Oakes, said: "It was a terrific achievement to get that far and she was reading and alert right until the end. She didn't have an easy life by any means and in fact she got special permission to leave school at 13 to work."

When Alice was born in 1900 Queen Victoria was still on the throne, Winston Churchill had just been elected to Parliament and the death of Oscar Wilde was announced.

Her life began in Newton and she was later to move to Tydd St Giles and Devon before returning to Wisbech in the 1920s.

She and her husband, Walter, who died in 1978 had two children Kenneth and Sheila, and she loved being a grandma and great-grandma.

When interviewed on her 105th birthday, she told the Standard: "I still enjoy good health and am not on any medication , although I do like a glass of sherry now and then."

Mrs Oakes said: "She was a great cook and always loved her food, I am sure that it was kept her going for so long."

For her 106th birthday in September last year, Alice had a steady stream of visitors including the mayor and mayoress of Wisbech.

Mrs Oakes said: "Once we got the winter over we thought she had a good chance of celebrating her 107th birthday, but that was not be. She had a bug and just didn't have the resistance to fight it off."

A funeral service is being held at Mintlyn Crematorium, King's Lynn, on Thursday (June 14) with donations in lieu of flowers for Milton Children's Hospice.

Mrs Oakes said: "She always adored all the children in the family and we thought it would be a fitting thing to do in memory of someone of such a great age.