A 102-year-old ‘song and dance’ girl is still bringing smiles to people’s faces in her care home.

Doreen Vickery, who lives at The Hollies in Gravesend, started performing in 1938, just before the start of the Second World War, and carried on for several decades.

The grandmother said: “I first started singing in public in the ‘30s. There was nothing else to do.

“The war was everywhere and I was just getting married, but my husband had to go straight away when it started.

“My friend and I were walking through the town and we called into a local pub.

“I never went to pubs, but there was a man playing in there who said I might like to listen.

“I got up and sang Give Me the Moonlight, and they asked if I wanted to come and sing to the soldiers at their camp.

“I went and sung to them, and that was the first place I properly sung - that’s how it all started.”

"She's brilliant and full of fun." - Peter Rogers

The Darnley Road resident was part of a well-known duo, “Danny and Splinters” and even performed for the Duke of Edinburgh at The Royal Variety Show.

She was given the name Splinters because her maiden name was Wood.

She sang with Danny for many years before he died of cancer, but still continued to sing until she broke her hip.

The mother-of-three added: “I was singing until I was 90, but I broke my hip when I went for a walk with my son Michael.

“The top half of my hip was hurt and I’ve been in the care home ever since.”

The former song girl is the oldest woman at The Hollies and has been there for more than six years.

General manager Peter Rogers says she is always getting recognised by locals.

He said: “She’s brilliant and full of fun.

“She has her ups and down, and no day is the same.

“But for 102-years-old she gets about well.

“We get lots of people come in and ask about her, or even recognise her from her time as Splinters.”

She admitted she’ll carry on singing for the other residents in the home, including her best friend Ruth Weatherhill, who turns 101 next week.