HER feisty character, sticking up for what she believes in, and a spot of yoga have all helped Gabrielle Ferrar reach 100.

German born Mrs Ferrar, celebrated her centenary with husband Harry, 97, and a host of family and friends in Summertown yesterday.

Son Marcus Ferrar, right, of Capel Road, said his mother was born in Germany in 1912.

He said: “She was a fairly feisty character and she fell foul of the Nazis in the 1930s and was expelled from her German school.

“Many of her friends were Jewish, and she thought Hitler was a ruffian and a guttersnipe.”

Mrs Ferrar, nee Roewer, met her husband, who was originally from Middleton Stoney, and moved with him to England just before the Second World War.

They have lived in Oxford since 1968.

Son Mr Ferrar, 67, said of his mother, who now suffers with dementia: “I think she would say the secret to a long life is yoga.”

Picture: OXxxx Damian Halliwell