There aren’t many people who can say they’ve seen five monarchs, sung in Sheffield Cathedral, taught a class of 59 children singlehandedly, and still made it home to Ramsey in time for tea.

But Jo Dennis (nee Corlett), who turned 100 this week, is not just anyone.

Born in Gladstone Avenue, Ramsey on August 6, 1925 to William and Alice Corlett, Jo’s life has taken her from war-hit Sheffield back to her beloved Isle of Man, and she’s done it all with a calmness and humour that would put most of us to shame.

Her milestone birthday was marked at Croven Court, where she now lives, with a warm afternoon tea celebration attended by family, friends, residents, and, perhaps most excitingly, cake.

Jo also received birthday wishes from both Buckingham Palace and Government House, recognising a lifetime well lived and a century of memories.

Asked how it felt to turn 100, She simply smiled and said: ‘Yes, very nice.’

Jo left the island at 18 to train as a teacher in Sheffield during the Second World War.

‘They spent a lot of time in the air raid shelters,’ her daughter Jan recalls.

‘Sheffield was heavily bombed, being the steel industry capital at the time.’

Jo's first teaching job was at Beck Road, where she was given 59 pupils and no classroom help.

But in typical Jo fashion, she just got on with it.

Many of those children passed their 11-plus, and if they were lucky, got a toffee from the first-ever Thorntons shop across the road, a treat Jo remembers fondly.

She later moved to Sharrow Lane School, where she taught for more than 30 years before retiring at 55 and returning home to Ramsey.

Once back in the island, Jo threw herself into island life.

A gifted soprano, she joined the Ramsey Choral and Cushag Choirs, performed poetry in the Manx dialect, and even sang in Sheffield Cathedral during her time in England.

She also travelled widely with the Manx Grasslands Society, maintaining her lifelong love of the farming world she grew up around.

Jo’s memory may be a little patchy these days – ‘I reasonably remember Ramsey,’ she said with a grin, but her sense of humour is still sharp.

When asked what the secret to long life is, she replied without missing a beat: ‘Good food. Just good food.’

And perhaps that calm, unflappable nature her daughter Jan says she's always had is part of the magic too.

Despite having lived through the dramatic changes of the past century, Jo is remarkably unfazed. ‘It hasn’t changed a lot. Not for me anyway,’ she said when asked how the island has evolved.

She may not have been back to Sheffield in years, but she says she always wanted to come home.

‘I was born and bred here. It’s my home. ‘You get to know most people in Ramsey, if not personally, by name.’

And now, most people in Ramsey certainly know Jo.