IN the week of the Telegraph & Argus's 150th anniversary, one of its most loyal readers has celebrated a milestone birthday too.

Ivy Pell, one of the Bradford Daily Telegraph’s ‘Jubilee Babies’, turned 100 on Wednesday and celebrated with family and friends at her West Bowling home, where she has lived for 85 years.

Ivy was one of 55 children born the week of July 16, 1918 ‘adopted’ by the Bradford newspaper to mark its 50th anniversary. The ‘Jubilee Babies’ were treated to a birthday party every year. “We got picked up on Drake Street, a charabanc took us to Burnsall. We had a lovely ride over the Dales,” said Ivy, who still has a camera given to her as a birthday present from the newspaper’s directors. “We had a birthday cake every year. One year we had a balloon race. I used to win all the races; I did gymnastics as a girl at Bradford Athletics Club on Manor Row.”

The last birthday party was at the New Victoria when the ‘Jubilee Babies’ turned 21 in 1939. Most of the young men had been called up to war.

A lifelong T&A reader, Ivy has it delivered daily. “I read it cover to cover,” she said. “I’ve written letters and entered competitions. I won lots of things - holidays, even a fridge!”

Ivy, who has a son, Andy, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, went to St Stephen’s School, West Bowling. She worked at Emsley’s mill then, during the war, at Yeadon Aerodrome, producing military aircraft in a camouflaged factory, covered in grass, imitation farm buildings, hedges and dummy cows, to conceal it from enemy fire. "We had to go in under cover and worked 12-hour shifts making screws for 'planes," said Ivy.

Ivy’s father, George, competed as a gymnast in the 1908 Olympics. Her late sister, Emma, was a community midwife. "People used to knock on the door saying, 'Mum's having a baby, come quickly'' and she'd head off on her bike," said Ivy's son, Andy. "She delivered 1,600 babies in the neighbourhood."

In her lifetime Ivy has seen three Monarchs, 20 Prime Ministers, two world wars and historic events such as the Women's Vote and Moon landings. "I've read all the news in the T&A. I wouldn't be without it," she smiled.