Betty Romary, who will be blowing out more candles on Saturday, pictured on her 101st

UNIVERSITY College London has worked out who its oldest living alumna is and the trail leads to an indomitable socialist called Betty Romary, who next week is due to celebrate her 103rd birthday.

She began her history degree back in 1937, but you never forget your days as a student, however long ago they were.

Especially so, as Betty and the other women at the university were for part of the course sent 230-odd miles to Aberystwyth to continue their studies due to the outbreak of war.

“There was a certain amount of mischief because it was the first time we were all living together,” she told the university’s alumni magazine. “But most of the boys had gone to the war.”

She later finished her studies at Birkbeck.

“I arrived there one Sunday morning to rescue books that had been housed in their basement after the firebombing of Fleet Street the night before,” she said.

Later she worked as a teacher, but outside of working hours was always dabbling in campaigns to help others: in the 1980s she sat down in Oxford Street as part of a demonstration against nuclear arms and was hauled away by police. In retirement, she volunteered for Amnesty International.

Needless to say, she has very little time for the current crop of politicians facing questions over whether they broke lockdown rules with garden parties and other “work events”.

Relatives will have a job getting all the candles on her cake at a family party on Saturday; coronavirus lockdowns prevented big get-togethers at 101 and 102, so it’s a little overdue.

She tells me from her home in Hornsey that books have played an important part in her longevity and urges people to never stop reading. Her love of Dickens, Shelley and Wordsworth shine through, as if she had read every text just yesterday.

“Plenty of exercise too,” she added; Betty was a splendid tennis player. “Eat plenty of vegetables and not much meat, and, if you can, have lots of friends.

“Be interested in the world, be interested in people.”