A 98-YEAR-OLD woman will be voting in her 19th general election today - but is no doubt hoping it will not be as memorable as a previous occasion.

Marian Irwin-Singer, who voted for Winston Churchill on October 26, 1951 - went into labour the same day and gave birth to her son, Jeremy.

Mrs Irwin-Singer, of Parade House in Monmouth, will be voting today at Monmouth Leisure Centre.

She lived in the Woodford constituency in Essex at the time of the 1951 election and cast her vote to Winston Churchill at 6pm, before she gave birth three hours later at Whipps Cross Hospital.

Her son, Jeremy Irwin-Singer, said: "I was born on general election day in 1951. My mother voted in the early evening and then went straight to the hospital.

"I think she probably was in labour at the time she was voting - it was a quick departure from the booth to the hospital."

He added: “I was born at 9pm before the polls closed. She is a very determined woman – she always wants to do things in person.

“She loves voting and going into labour wouldn't have stopped her from voting."

Mrs Irwin-Singer was born in Limerick, Ireland, and was sent to London by her parents to help out with the war effort in the 1940s.

She worked as an auxiliary nurse in hospitals in central London during the Second World War and then became a teacher.

The mother of five moved to Monmouth in 1967 and worked as an English teacher and house mistress at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls.

Mr Irwin-Singer said: “She's 98-years-old but is insistent that she votes in person. She didn't want a postal vote.

"She's looking forward to it all. She's a suffragette - she is a very independent minded person.

“She hates it when people don't vote. She always watches political shows on television.”