A GREAT great grandmother nicknamed the Crossword Queen has celebrated her 104th birthday.

Bunny Honeybun is Colne Housing’s oldest resident, living at the housing association’s over-55s retirement scheme in Ironside Walk, Manningtree.

She celebrated her birthday on Monday with granddaughters Lisa and Laura, Colne’s chief executive Sara Thakkar plus other staff and residents.

Bunny also has five great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.

And with help from Colne, she recently got back in contact with her youngest sister - her only surviving sibling - who is 100 and lives in Hampshire.

Bunny does the cryptic crossword every day, which has earned her the nickname the Crossword Queen.

She said: “I am happy with my life.

“I don’t feel I have wasted it, I have done so much.

“I have a lovely home and friends and family and have been lucky with my health.

“I do a cryptic crossword every day to keep my mind active and a lot of reading.

“The residents at Ironside Walk call me the crossword queen.”

Bunny, who has been deaf for 34 years, was named Violet when she was born in 1915 in Erith, Kent. She was the seventh of eight siblings.

In 1938 she married Henry, a volunteer in the Grenadier Guards and a London bus driver, and took the nickname Bunny after his surname. Sadly Henry died aged 66 on their wedding anniversary in 1979 and Bunny never remarried.

After being asked to leave school at 14 to do domestic work she eventually forged the career she wanted as a manager in the Post Office.

Bunny moved to Kirby Cross in 1981, where she was very involved in the community, before living in Clacton and then moved to Ironside Walk 12 years ago.

She was presented with a bouquet of flowers from Colne for her birthday.

Colne’s chief executive Sara Thakkar said: “It was a delight to meet Bunny and celebrate her birthday with her. She is the oldest resident we have living in a Colne home and has a fantastic positive outlook.”