SHE has survived two world wars and seen her home blitzed but has lived to tell the tale.

Now Southampton great-grandmother of 12 Doris Adams has enjoyed celebrating her 100th birthday in style at a party at St James’ Church in West End.

Dot, as she is affectionately known, was the daughter of a stoker in the merchant navy and grew up near the centre of Southampton as one of five children.

In the year that marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Doris recalled that one of her first childhood memories was seeing a German Zeppelin airship over Southampton.

During the Second World War she was lucky to escape with her life when she saw her home in Woodmill Lane in flames after the city was bombed in 1940.

Dot attended Mount Pleasant School for Girls and Swaythling School. After leaving education she worked in the Day Service in Portswood for a year and then joined Camelot Press, where she worked as a book binder for nearly nine years.

It was there that she met her husband, Arthur Adams. They married in August 1936 and stayed together until Arthur’s death in 1981.

The couple ran a successful grocery business in Thornhill Park Road, which was sold shortly before Arthur’s death.

Her daughter, June Holloway 76, of Yeovil Chase in Harefield, said: “She is a very determined lady with a sense of humour.

“She is hard-working and very much involved in the family.

“She has always been someone I look up to. I am very proud of my mother.”

Dot’s main passion was bowling and she was a member at Pirrie Park Bowling Club.

Granted honorary life membership in 1983, she is the club’s oldest member, although she stopped bowling 14 years ago.

Her other hobby is knitting, and she knits teddies for children in developing countries.