When Kathleen McDonnell was born on the day the First World War ended, she was given the middle name of Peace to mark the occasion.

Yesterday Kathleen, who was also given the middle name Verdun after the famous Western Front battle, celebrated her 91st birthday.

Kathleeen, who lives in Knowle, was born in St Judes in Bristol into a hard life. She and her five brothers and sisters were brought up by their grandmother in Lamb Street, and got by with very little money.

"I remember I never had birthday cake, but one year I cried because I wanted some and my grandmother gave me some money to buy one slice," Kathleen said.

"Everyone used to say what a special day it was to have my birthday. My grandmother came up with the name Peace because she said I had brought peace into the world."

Kathleen remembers empty streets with no cars to be seen, and says St Judes used to be known as the rough part of town "outside the gate".

She recalls one incident when a policeman was stabbed near her house, but said she never felt unsafe and you could always leave your door unlocked.

Kathleen said: "It was a hard life there. All the rats used to walk down the streets like old men and women, and when I washed my face there'd be baby mice in the basin.

"But there were things like a man bringing hot potatoes round like you get ice cream vans nowadays, and at 2am my grandfather would get up to get hot cross buns from a man selling them."

Her grandmother had a handy door into the pub next door, so she would put her orders in at the bar and they would slide her drinks through the hatch.

She remembers the Second World War as a time of endlessly having to dive into shelters when the sirens went off, and getting by with rations that made life even tougher.

She went to St Judes School in Wade Street until she started work at the age of 14 at the Sangers medical warehouse, but she stopped when she married her husband George in 1938.

They had courted for seven years, going for walks in Eastville Park or to the picture houses in Pennywell Road, Easton.

She first lived with George, an aeroplane inspector, in St Pauls before moving to Knowle. They had three children together, and Kathleen is now grandmother to nine, great grandmother to 21 and also has one great, great granddaughter.

Sadly George died from cancer aged 40, leaving 34-year-old Kathleen with little money and three small children.

"He was so brave," said Kathleen. "He said so many lovely things to me before he died. He said he had loved every minute we had spent together, that it was his time, that he did not want me to re-marry. He was a golden little chap.

"Right now, these are the best years of my life. Back then it was poverty," said Kathleen, who lives alone. "Now I can manage little holidays and get by OK. Back then my children did not know what it was to have a bar of chocolate."

She aims to live until she is at least 100 years old, by eating well, never smoking, and staying as active as she possibly can.

"The recipe for a long life is lots of worry and hardship, and the occasional drop of brandy," she said.