Britain's 'oldest smoker' dies at 103

London: Britain's "oldest smoker', who puffed more than 170,000 cigarettes for over 95 years, has died a month short of her 103rd birthday, a media report said, quoting her family members.

The great-great grandmother, Winnie Langley, who loved a good party, took her first puff, aged seven, after World War I started. However, she quit smoking last year as she could no longer see the end of a match.

Her family disclosed yesterday that she had died one month short of her 103rd birthday after having beaten cancer in her 90s, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

Anne Gibbs, who lives in Lincoln, Licolnshire, said her aunt always enjoyed a smoke and a drink. "But it was a maximum of five cigarettes a day. She stopped just before Christmas as she couldn't see end of the match to light it,"

'The Daily Telegraph' quoted Gibbs as saying. Mrs Langley, who began smoking to calm her nerves during the war and outlived her husband, son and all of her 10 stepchildren, made headlines at her 100th birthday after being photographed lighting a cigarette with a candle.

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Speaking at her 100th birthday party, Mrs Langley had said: "I have smoked ever since infant school and I have never thought about quitting. There were not all the health warnings like there are today when I started. It was the done thing."

The pensioner of New Addington, Croydon, south London, was recently persuaded to give up her habit due to her failing eyesight after she could not see the end of a match. She had cut down from her five-a-day habit to just one cigarette last year because of the credit crunch.

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Mrs Langley was born in Croydon in 1907 as one of seven children. Before meeting her husband Bob, a world war veteran 28 years her senior, in a Croydon pub, she worked in a laundry and as a chamber maid.