FORMER diplomat Peggy Graham had a lifetime of adventures to look back on as she marked her 106th birthday.

She and her late husband Andrew spent three decades globetrotting when they both worked for the foreign office, working in such exotic locations as Venice, Kenya, Zanzibar, Bermuda and Vienna.

But it was Paris that really captured her heart and was the place that she later declared her favourite.

Mrs Graham, who was born in Weymouth but moved to Bournemouth more than 30 years ago, speaks three foreign languages and has a host of fascinating stories.

Reg Brooks, who met her when he ran the Allington Rest Home in Bournemouth, said she has regaled him with tales of being chased by Germans in the early stages of the Second World War.

"She's very well-travelled," he said. "And she has pictures of herself travelling the world which are stories in themselves.

"My wife and I met her when she was about 85 or 86. Little did I realise she would live to this age. It's remarkable.

"I've never asked her what her secret is but she does everything in moderation. She's always watched her diet, never smoked and I've never seen her drink more than one-and-a-half sherries."

Since retiring in Bournemouth with Andrew, who died at the age of 75, the closure of various rest homes has forced Mrs Graham to move several times. She has been at the Aspen Grange home in Boscombe for the past year.

But Mr Brooks said she has taken the upheaval in her stride. "Probably because of her past history, it has never been a problem," he said.

"One time when we were moving her she said to me 'I hope I don't put the mockers on this place'. That sums up her attitude."

Events in Peggy's life

BORN the same year as Alice In Wonderland author C. S. Lewis, Peggy Graham was five years of age when Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize.

The inaugural Ford Model T was being produced when Peggy reached double figures in 1908.

The world witnessed the dramatic sinking of the Titanic when she was a teenager, an tragedy in which 1,500 lives were lost to the icy Atlantic.

In 1913 suffragette Emily Davison was killed after falling beneath the King's horse.

One year on, as Britons returned from a Bank Holiday, war was declared against Germany.

As Peggy neared 18 daylight saving time was introduced. By the age of 20, women had been granted the vote.

In the year she would turn 35, tennis star Fred Perry achieved glory for Great Britain, beating Don Budge in five sets at the US Open.

As Peggy neared 50, British rule of India had come to an end after 163 years and Ghandi had been assassinated. Months before her 55th birthday the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey.

During her 60th year the first Mini cars were sold at a cost of £500, and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was to shock cinema-goers the world over. As Peggy turned 65, JFK would be shot and killed in Dallas.

Natalie Harrison

First published: November 4