Meadmore said that in her youth women only had sex with their husbands, and she rejected all the men who asked her to marry them, The Sun reported.

"I made my mind up at 12 never to marry and I've not gone back on that," she said. "I've always been too busy doing other things. People have asked if I'm a homosexual -- the answer is no."

Meadmore, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and lived in Egypt, Canada and New Zealand as a child, has traveled the world. She served in Egypt with the Women's Royal Army Corps during World War II and moved between New Zealand and London after the war.

She loved walking and mowed the lawn at her home in Cornwall until she was 97, although she now lives in a nursing home.

She never owned a TV.

Josie Harvey, a youngster of 72, visits her every day.

"Maybe never having a man to get under her feet has kept Clara young," Harvey said. "She has her hobbies and her friends and those are all she needs."