Ethel Fedor celebrated her 103rd birthday by leading a rousing rendition of Que Sera Sera at a party at Jewish Care’s Lady Sarah Cohen House in Friern Barnet, where she is a resident. The keen bridge and kalooki player also participated in the charity’s inter-home and community centre card day.

“I’ll never know how I came to get to this age,” she told party guests.

“But it’s lovely to be surrounded by my family today.” Mrs Fedor said her longevity was a matter of luck. “My proudest achievement is having such a loving, caring family, including 11 great-grandchildren between the years of three and 19.”

Born in Shoreditch, she has also lived in North Finchley and Islington. Her early ambition was to be a writer. “But it wasn’t possible for a poor young woman from the East End so I left school young to work, like a lot of my generation.”

Having learned to audio type, she became a temp, with legal secretarial work among her jobs. She met husband Percy through a mutual love of cycling.

Mrs Fedor reflected that “the biggest change in my lifetime has been technology and computers, though I think young people spend too much time on computers and phones. They would be better off talking to each other and being sociable.

“It was hard in the 1930s — life is a bit easier now.”