Winnie Langley, who has died aged 102, is pictured here lighting what was thought to roughly be her 170,000 cigarette on her 100th birthday
The oldest smoker in Britain has died aged 102, after puffing her way through 170,000 cigarettes.
Winnie Langley started smoking only days after the First World War broke out in June 1914 when she was just seven-years-old - and had five a day until last year..
She even celebrated her 100th birthday by lighting up her 170,000th cigarette from a candle on her birthday cake.
The Croydon-based pensioner cut down from her five-a-day habit to just one cigarette last year because of the credit crunch. She then quit at Christmas due to her failing eyesight.
Family member Anne Gibbs paid a glowing tribute to her aunt.
'She only gave up because she could not see the end of the match to light it. She was fiesty and stubborn and she also had a wonderful sense of humour,' she told the Croydon Guardian.
Winnie, who was born in Croydon in 1907 claimed tobacco never made her ill because she didn't inhale, although she did successfully battle cancer in her nineties.
'There were not all the the health warnings like there are today when I started. It was the done thing,' she said at her 100th birthday party.
