Five generations of Banbury family come together to celebrate matriarch's 103 birthday

Dozens of Dorcus Tobin’s family, from her daughter to her great-great-granddaughter, came together to mark the centenarian’s birthday at the The Easington pub yesterday (June 28).

Born in Grimsbury, Dorcus has lived her entire life in the Banbury area and has been a steadfast and inspiring head of the family to her many descendents.

Dorcus served in the Women's Land Army during the Second World War before marrying her husband, Horace, and adopting two children in the 1950s. The couple also fostered a number of children around this time as well.

Dorcas and her twin sister Edith Dumbleton were born 45 minutes apart on June 28 in 1920, and were believed to be among the oldest twin sisters in the country before Edith sadly died last year.

To mark the incredible milestone in Dorcas’s life and to pay respects and honour the memory of Edith, family members from all generations surprised Dorcas with a trip to the pub for a meal.

Dorcas’ grand daughter, Jo Chamberlain, said: "She is absolutely independent; she’s 103 years old and sprightly and very able; she could get away with being 20 years younger; people can’t believe she is her age!

"She has two children, two grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and a two-year-old great-great-grandchild, Daisy, who she absolutely loves spending time with. We all absolutely adore her; she just takes care of everybody."

After serving in the Land Army in her late teens and early twenties, Dorcus spent time working as a barmaid in Banbury before taking up an impassioned knitting hobby after retirement that not always delighted her growing family.

Jo added: "When she was in her 80s, she was a massive knitter; she used to make jumpers for friends and family and even make dolls and blankets for patients in the Horton Hospital.

"There were some absolute stonkers of creations that I was made to wear as a teenager growing up in the 1980s, but she’s an incredible woman and well known for her kindness and caring around Banbury."