A FORMER teacher who helped school children evacuate from Birmingham during World War Two has turned 100.

Trudie Haines, who moved to Malvern 60 years ago, tagged her pupils and helped them onto trains leaving Aston, in Birmingham, in 1939.

Mrs Haines, who now lives in Cartwright Court, Malvern, has had three birthday parties since becoming a centenarian on Wednesday, November 16.

Malvern Inner Wheel Club held a tea party for Mrs Haines, who is their longest serving member, on Tuesday, November 22.

The centenarian said: "People ask me and I say: 'I'm not telling you what the secret to long life is.'

"I'm a happy person, have had a happy life, have nice family and friends and I have been healthy."

The mother-of-three remembers helping children onto trains during wartime evacuations, while weeping parents stood on the platform.

"It was all very hurried. Most of the people I know wouldn't have known what it was like for the children to be taken," she said.

"They learned a different way of life. I tagged the pupils from my school and got some of them on the train."

Ruth Cook, president of Malvern Inner Wheel, said: "I have known her for 15 years but known about her for much longer.

"We used to have a business in Malvern and behind it was a dance studio and we used to hear her playing the piano.

"She's a great pianist, she still plays everyday. Over the years she's arranged concerts where she has played the piano.

"Her sense of humour is amazing. When we took her to the celebration we thought we better pace it but she got up and thanked everybody.

"She still comes to the Inner Wheel. There were about 29 women from the Inner Wheel at her party in the Glass House Cafe in Suckley on Tuesday."

Mrs Haines had one birthday celebration in her retirement home, another with her family and also a party with the Inner Wheel.

The Inner Wheel Club is a women's fundraising organisation, the members of which are wives of Rotary Club members.