She has lived through two World Wars and has a multitude of tales to tell.

But Lesley Forsyth was adamant that no fuss should be made as she celebrated her 100th birthday.

Before her richly-deserved party in West Linton guests were told they should not go on about her exploits.

“She warned us not to say too much and I thought she might switch off her deaf aid so she couldn’t hear all the things we were saying,” said daughter Lesley Watson.

“But I think she picked up quite a lot of it and she was delighted with all the surprises we had for her.

“It turned out to be a great day. Mum lasted the course well, she seemed to find a second wind.

“She has had a great life, a busy life and her biggest problem now is just that she can’t be busy.” Mrs Forsyth was treated to a meal at the golf club in the village where she has lived for a large chunk of her life.

The guests included her two grandchildren, Derek and Mandy, and two of her three great-granddaughters, Ailsa and Meredith. Her eldest great-granddaughter, Gemma, was missing as she is in Malawi.

Born in Glasgow on July 12, 1914 - just 16 days before the outbreak of the First World War - Mrs Forsyth was the second child of Annie and Colin, and had younger siblings, Anne, Agnes and Colin.

An abiding memory from her childhood was being given a penny for the return tram fare across the city to visit her grandmother. Often she would use the halfpenny for the return fare to buy a bag of sweets for her granny or herself and walk home instead.

After leaving school she became a maid and then worked in a shoe shop in Glasgow but left after three years complaining that too many customers had smelly feet! In 1934 while working as a maid in Carlops for a wealthy Canadian family she met her future husband Jim Forsyth, a grocer’s van driver.

They were married at St Giles’ Register Office in Chambers Street, Edinburgh in 1937 and lived in a cottage in Teapot Lane, West Linton, then known as Kenmore.

She moved back to the city of her birth in 1939 as her husband took a job as a bus driver throughout the war years and she worked in the GPO parcel office.

Mrs Forsyth’s daughter was born in 1942 and seven years later they returned to West Linton and eventually to Broomlees Road where she still lives.

She has been a prominent member of the community, working in various homes, at the school and as a cook at the Raemartin Hotel.

After her husband died in 1980 she spent a month with family in Los Angeles before returning to West Linton and working again.

Mrs Forsyth was an active supporter of the West Linton Pipe Band in which her husband was one of the three founding members along with three family members who played in the band.

She provided expertise at fund-raising events including coffee mornings, filling baking stalls, cooking pies for Whipman Saturdays and catering for the caelidhs held in the Graham Institute. For the first of these she provided over 130 haggis dinners.

She and long-time friend Molly Hayton loved their days away with the Pipe Band here and in Belgium. On one memorable trip at Bridge of Allan they both disappeared and were later found in a crowd around footballer Ally McCoist - now the Rangers manager - waiting for his autograph.

In 1986 she gave up working at the age of 72 when she helped at the Luncheon Club helping many younger than herself.

“With such a full and busy life she is still living in Broomlee Road with her budgie for company and mostly on her own terms,” said her daughter.

“She is helped by Mary Aitken, Gillian and the care service girls for which the family are all extremely grateful.

“She is still proud of her birthplace and as the saying goes: ‘You can take a Glaswegian out of Glasgow but you can never take Glasgow out of a Glaswegian’.”