Tributes have been paid to Suffolk’s oldest resident following her death earlier this month.
Doris Punchard, who died just a month after celebrating her 111th birthday, was the sixth oldest person in Britain.
The super-centenarian, affectionately known as Punch, had suffered a short illness before her death on August 12.
Punch was born in Springfield Lane, Ipswich, on July 19, 1904, and was only 10-years-old when the First World War started in 1914. Two years earlier she had waited anxiously for news of her aunt Selena Cook, a Salvation Army captain, who had been on board the Titanic’s voyage to New York.
She lived alone until 2013 before moving into Beach Lawn care home in Hadleigh Road, Ipswich.
Hamil Clarke, Ipswich’s mayor in 2013/14, attended several of Punch’s more recent birthday parties and said she was a great example of how to live life.
“She was a brilliant woman, a remarkable woman,” he said. “She was fun, she had all her faculties about her and enjoyed everything that was going on.”
Mr Clarke said Miss Punchard’s death would leave a hole in a lot of people’s lives.
“It was a privilege to know her and see how remarkable she was,” he added. “She just had fun.”
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