ELIZABETH Bradshaw was born two years before the Titanic sank and vividly recalled the moment the Allies had won World War One.

Earlier this month, just a few weeks short of her 104th birthday and having spent 47 years as a widow, the mum-of-five from Over Hulton died.

Mrs Bradshaw, who lived in her own home in Rutherford Drive with daughter Lucy Ritchie right up to her death, was very friendly, a great talker and an avid reader of The Bolton News, even after she turned 100 in 2010.

She died on August 5 and her funeral takes place at St Andrew’s Church in Over Hulton today at 2.30pm. The mourners expected to attend are to be asked to make donations to the Make a Wish foundation.

Mrs Ritchie, aged 79, said: “She was very friendly and would keep you talking.

“She could certainly tell a tale or two.

“Eventually it was her legs that gave in. She was still really sharp but her mobility went.”

Brought up in Manchester Road East, Little Hulton, Mrs Bradshaw spent the majority of married life in Quebec Street, Deane, before moving to live with her daughter.

She had five children, Lucy, Billy, John and George, as well as eldest son Harry, who died aged just 23.

She also leaves behind eight grandchildren, 13 great-grand-children and three great-great-grand-children.

Mrs Bradshaw met husband William while working in the pub her parents ran and they got married in the early 1930s.

Mr Bradshaw was not required to join the forces during World War Two as he worked in the steel industry.

She lost her husband in 1966 when he was 64, meaning, in the words of son George, “she has had another lifetime on her own”.

Mrs Ritchie added: “After my dad died, she did a lot of creative things, such as sewing, cake baking and painting.

“She used to go to the Isle of Man for her holidays when my dad was alive, but she joined a women’s group and went all over, to Holland, the fjords in Norway and Vancouver to visit a relative.”

George, 67, said: “She recalled as an eight-year-old playing in the school yard and the teacher ringing the school bell and announcing that the war was finished.”

He added: “She always said she lived so long because she never smoked or drank, even though her parents ran a pub.

“She said a teacher showed them what happened to a worm when it was placed in alcohol.

“It turned completely white and she always said ‘that is what it will do to your insides’.”