Identical twins from Herne and Whitstable have celebrated their 90th birthday.

Jackie White and Jill Upton née Milford - known affectionately as Jack and Jill - hit the impressive milestone last Saturday.

Between them, the pair have a family spanning five generations - with more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter.

“There’s nobody like a twin sister,” said Jackie. “You have so much in common. You have the same likes - you find you turn up to go out together and you’ve got the same colour dress on. It’s odd, but it’s quite a novelty.

“We have great confidence in one another. Jill’s always there for me, and I’m always there for her. We don’t have any disagreements. We get on very well - it’s lovely.”

The twins were born at their family home in Snodland in 1929 to their mother Mabel who - in the days long before ultrasound - had only expected one baby.

“Jill was born, but our mother was still in labour,” said Jackie. “So they sent for a doctor who said ‘you’re having another one’. I was born about five hours later. We came as quite a shock.”

Their father died when they were about six years old - leaving their mother to care for the twins and their three older sisters and one younger sister.

Jackie said: “Our mother was a very capable woman and we had a lovely, happy childhood.

“It was also wartime. We used to sit at the window and watch airplanes setting off from West Malling.”

When the twins were 14, a doodlebug bomb destroyed the house opposite theirs, forcing the family to relocate to Herne Bay.

Jill’s youngest daughter Teresa said: “There were lots of soldiers in Herne Bay, so of course they had a whale of a time.

“My mother would go out with one and decide she didn’t like him, so she’d give him to auntie Jackie - but he’d think he was still going out with Jill. They did a lot of boyfriend swapping.”

In November 1952, the twins married in a double wedding at St Mary’s Church, Reculver. Jackie married John White - an RAF man who was also a twin - while Jill married Ronald Upton, a farmer.

Jackie went on to have four boys, while Jill had three girls.

“But we shared them,” said Jacky. “We were always together.“The air force took us all over the world - we lived in Africa, Hong Kong. But my boys were in boarding school here, so they would stay with Jill on her farm and had everything they could want.”

In the early 70s, Jackie moved from Singapore to Chestfield - where she still lives, just a few miles from Jill’s home in Herne.

'We don’t ever fight or fall out. A twin’s the best friend you can have' - Jill Upton

Jill said: “Our husbands were both fit men but sadly they both disappeared quite suddenly.

“Our other sisters are sadly all gone now too. So we’re both left, but we are with each other.

“We visit each other any moment we can. You’re synchronised, as twins. You understand each other. You’ve got the same everything.

“Jackie’s a bit naughtier than me. I’m the good one - I’m the eldest you see, so I know how to behave and she doesn’t.

“People used to get us confused all the time. Even our mother - she’d start telling me off about something and I’d say ‘I’m not Jack, I’m Jill’ and she’d burst out laughing.

“But we don’t ever fight or fall out. A twin’s the best friend you can have.

“We haven’t always been together on our birthdays. In younger days, Jackie was always posted away. So it’s lovely to see so much of each other now, and that we can have our birthdays together. We had a lovely big party with all our relatives to celebrate our 90th birthday.

“We’ve had a good life.”