A FORMER nurse and Maldon Grammar School teacher who came to the UK from Germany after the Second World War has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Ursula Hoar was born on January 16, 1917, in the former German city of Danzig, which later became the Polish port of Gdansk.

After a lifetime which saw her lose her parents to the Soviets, settle in Danbury, enjoy a career at Essex hospitals and schools and become friends with Dame Helen Mirren, Ursula celebrated at Millard House Care Home in Bocking, where she has lived since 2003.

After studying medicine at Berlin University, Ursula joined a team of doctors accompanying the German military to Hanover near the end of the Second World War.

After the conflict she started working at a hospital in Kiel, northern Germany, where she learnt her parents had been forcibly taken to work for the Soviets. She never heard from them again.

A talented theatre nurse, she started working at Westcliff Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital, Chelmsford.

While living in Westcliff she became good friends with Oscar- winning actress Dame Helen Mirren.

As a part-time German tutor, she met her husband Harvey Hoar in 1961 and impressed him with her piano-playing ability.

She took up teaching full-time in 1969, starting a job at Maldon Grammar School, and went on to work at 18 different schools and colleges in the next 25 years.

The couple shared many passions together including sailing and took motorcycle trips from their home in Danbury to Ursula’s beloved Germany.

Ursula was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2003.

Harvey, 79, said: “We used to speak to each other in German all the time which I think helped her manage the loss of losing her family and moving to England.

“She is so talented and so very kind, compassionate and fascinating. Without the war I would have never met anybody quite like her and I feel so incredibly lucky I did.”