ARTIST Dora Banfield celebrated her 100th birthday at Abbeyfield House retirement home in Taunton with Mayor and Mayoress Dave and Renee Durdan among the guests.

Dora, who was brought up in the South-East of England, moved to Somerset when she married Robert Banfield in 1943 and brought up their three children there.

She has led a varied and interesting life, including teaching children in London during the early part of the Second World War, later becoming a Land Girl and a nurse for the British Red Cross.

She has travelled to New Zealand, Zambia and to remote villages in India.

Her love of drawing and painting has been an important part of her life and Dora has taken part in many exhibitions, worked as a school art teacher, set up art classes and produced greeting cards.

This all contributed to her book ‘A Window into Art’, published in 2003, linking her art with her Christian faith.