THE last of the Telegraph & Argus 'Jubilee Babies' has died, aged 100.

Ivy Pell was one of 55 children born the week of July 16, 1918 who were 'adopted' by the newspaper to mark its 50th anniversary. Known as the ‘Jubilee Babies’, they were treated to an annual birthday party until they were 21.

“We got picked up on Drake Street, the other children in my class were so jealous. A charabanc took us over the Dales to Burnsall,” Ivy told the T&A on her 100th birthday last July. "We had a birthday cake every year and presents from the newspaper's directors."

EDITOR'S COMMENT: Ivy was part of the T&A family

Ivy died on Tuesday at her home in Round Street, West Bowling, where she had lived for 85 years. Her son, Andy Pell, said: "She lived a colourful, varied life. She never went abroad but she loved cycling and walking.

"She was very proud of being a Jubilee Baby and often talked about the birthday parties at Burnsall. She used to take me there as a child. She kept all her invitations and an engraved silver cup and camera she got as presents."

Ivy, who had three grandchildren and five great grandchildren, was an avid reader of the T&A. "I have it delivered every day and read it cover to cover," she said last year. "I've always written letters and entered competitions. I won holidays, a day at the races, even a fridge!"

After leaving St Stephen's School, West Bowling, aged 14, Ivy worked at Emsley's mill and during the Second World War she was at Yeadon Aerodrome, a camouflaged military aircraft factory covered in grass, imitation farm buildings and dummy cows to conceal it from enemy fire. "We went in under cover. I made screws for the planes," said Ivy. "I had to walk into town then get a bus to Yeadon and do a 12-hour shift. We didn't get weekends off. I was glad to return to Emsley's after the war!"

Ivy's father, George, was a well-known Bradford weightlifter and competed as a gymnast in the 1908 Olympics. As a girl Ivy did gymnastics at Bradford Athletics Club. Her late sister, Emma, was a midwife and delivered 1,600 babies in West Bowling. Emma died in 1972 after being hit by a motorbike.

Ivy was part of a group which had a memorial installed in West Bowling in memory of the Newlands Mill disaster. The mill's 4,000-ton chimney collapsed in 1882, killing 54 workers, including whole families. And in 2003 Ivy campaigned to re-name a local park in memory of Jane Binns, a founder member of the West Bowling Advice Centre.

Ivy was a lifelong member of St Stephen’s Church in West Bowling, where the initials of her sister, Emma, are in the porch gates.