A great-grandmother had one of the happiest days of her life as she celebrated her 105th birthday with a tour of the House of Lords.

Hannah Cripps, the oldest resident of Jewish Care’s Rubens House care home in Finchley, turned 105 in earlier this year but is continuing to make the most of her landmark birthday.

To prolong her celebrations, Mrs Cripps was treated to the tour by Jewish Care President, Lord Levy, who showed her round the House of Lords on Wednesday October 23.

Mrs Cripps was accompanied by her son Norman Cripps, Rubens House social care co-ordinator Christina Brago Nimako and vice chair of Jewish Care, Debbie Fox.

They had tea together in the House of Lords and were introduced to several peers.

Mrs Cripps said: “Today has been one of the happiest days of my life and I may not see this again in my lifetime.”

Mrs Cripps was born in 1908 in Grafton Street, Mile End, and left school at the age of 14 to work as a milliner.

She made high fashion hats for the capital’s most exclusive stores including Whiteley and Selfridges.

She was a keen ballroom dancer and it was through this passion that she met her husband Monty, a manager for Moss Bross.

The pair had one son and lived a “happy life” in Finchley where she worked in a patisserie.
When her husband died in 2000, Mrs Cripps moved to Rubens house.