U.K.: Agnes Brown, Lancashire's oldest person, dies aged 109

. PRESTON, Lancashire / The Lancashire Evening Post / January 21, 2009 Lancashire's oldest person has died - at the age of 109. Agnes Brown, who was born in Fleetwood and also lived in Preston for 19 years, was just four months from her 110th birthday and was believed to be the third oldest person in the country. She passed away peacefully at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Monday. Mrs Brown was alive in three different centuries. Queen Victoria was still on the throne and the Boer War was yet to begin when she was born on May 15 1899 at number 91 Walmsley Street, Fleetwood. She lived under six monarchs and saw off 22 Prime Ministers. In 1908 her family moved to Preston. At the age of 12, Mrs Brown - whose maiden name was McGuire - worked part-time for a year as a weaver at Brookhouse Mill until she left school to go full-time in 1912. In 1927 she married her husband Francis and moved back to Fleetwood, where he became market superintendent. At the time of her death she had been living at Fleetwood Hall residential home on Chatsworth Avenue. Last May, when asked about the secret of her long life, she said: "I had an ordinary life. I never knocked myself about like some of them, up to one or two in the morning. We were always off to bed at nine o'clock, even as children." Mrs Brown leaves behind family and friends, including her son Dennis, in his 76th year, and his wife Mavis. © 2009 Johnston Press Digital Publishing