Britain's oldest person, who lived in Poole, has died aged 112.

Joan Hocquard, who was born under the reign of Edward VII in 1908, passed away yesterday at her home in Dorset.

Her father was a colonial officer who was in charge of shipping on the Great Lakes in East Africa so she spent much of her childhood in Kenya.

She worked as a cook in a French hotel near Geneva and met her husband Gilbert through their shared love of sailing.

Her nephew Paul Reynolds, 74, a former BBC journalist, said: "Joan Hocquard was a remarkably resilient person and lived her long life taking everything in her stride.

"She was born into a well-off family which had a law firm in the City of London.

"Her father was in the Colonial Service and Joan spent some of her childhood in Kisumu in Kenya where he was in charge of shipping on the Great Lakes before and during the First World War.


Joan drove ambulances in London during World War Two before they moved down to the south coast of England.

They travelled across the continent in a camper van and went on yachting holidays until Gilbert's death in 1981.


Later that decade, she met widower Kenneth Bedford who was 20 years her junior at the Bournemouth Gramophone Society and they had lived together since in Poole.

"There was no secret to her long life," Paul added.

"Indeed, she broke most of the modern dietary rules with relish.

"She worked in a French hotel near Geneva for some years in the 1930s and learned how to cook the French way which for her was the only way - lashings of butter and cream which she loved until her final days.

"She was tremendously hospitable and loved cooking for guests and taking them out to restaurants. If you stayed overnight with her, she wanted you to stay for two nights and if for two then a week."

Mrs Hocquard lived in Poole for many years, having moved to Lilliput from Canford Cliffs after her husband’s death in 1981.

Joan spent her early life in Kenya where her father was a British colonial officer, before attending boarding school in Sussex and later working as a cook at a hotel in Geneva.

"She and her husband had 40 foot yacht which they sailed from Beaulieu in Hampshire around the coast and to France.

"They also travelled across the continent in a camper van. She loved being on the move.

"In later years after her husband died she met a widower Kenneth Bedford and they lived together happily for 30 years."

The oldest ever British person was Charlotte Hughes who lived to 115 years and 228 days before her death in 1993.

The oldest living Brit is Lilian Priest, from Swanage, Dorset, who is 111 years old.