�Tributes have been paid to a “glamour puss” who died a week before her 103rd birthday.

Mabel “Mabs” Scotchmere, of Hornchurch, who was staying at Abbcross Nursing Home, in Brentwood Road, was due to celebrate her birthday last Thursday. But she died the Friday before, after a short illness.

Mabel was described as active and full of life, and tributes have flooded in to her daughter Marion White from friends who said they were “privileged to have known her.”

Marion said: “She was a bit of a glamour puss, a very modern and vivacious lady. She had lovely manners, and whoever she met liked her. She was outgoing and had lots of friends. She was a wonderful mum, and her saying was ‘that life should be enjoyed and not endured’.”

Marion added: “Mum never had a bad word to say about anyone. We have had so many cards with lovely messages in them, saying that people felt privileged to have known her.”

Mabel was born in Limehouse, east London, and met Reginald Scotchmere when she was 19 and they were both canvassing for the Conservative Party.

They married in 1934 at St John’s Church, in Hackney, and later moved to Clapton. The couple had two children, Robin and Marion. Reginald died in 1986, and Mabel, aged 77, continued caring for Robin – who had Cerebral Palsy – for another 13 years, until he died in 1999.

She then moved to Hornchurch to live with her daughter Marion, and later Moreland House Care Home, Romford, before moving to Abbcross Nursing Home.

Her funeral was due to be held yesterday (Wednesday) at the South Essex Crematorium, in Corbets Tey Road, Upminster.

Donations can be made to the British Heart Foundation through BF Mulley and Son in honour of Mabel.