A WOMAN believed to have been the UK's oldest person was given a fitting send-off yesterday.

Sant Kaur Bajwa, of Old Cote Drive, Heston, was 115 years and 199 days old, according to her family, when she died last Friday (July 19) after succumbing to a chest infection.

Hundreds of people turned out to pay their respects to an 'amazing and formidable' woman at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, in Park Avenue, Southall, yesterday (Tuesday, July 23).

Her grandson Jim Rai, one of 12 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren, said: "The weather we're having is a very good reflection of her personality. She could be hot, sunny, humid and every now and then there was a strike of lightning.

"She was an amazing and formidable woman who was devoted to her children. She had a difficult life but always remained positive and was a force to be reckoned with."

Mrs Bajwa was born in 1898 in a small village in what is now Pakistan, called Monde ke Mazeera.

She had a tough childhood, losing both her parents at a young age and being raised by her older sister.

She was 16 when she married a farmer, Munsha Singh, with whom she had four children, but tragedy struck again when he died just six years later.

In 1947, after the partition of India and Pakistan, she was forced to migrate to Shukarpur in the Punjab, a journey one of her children did not survive.

The Indian government at the time provided widows with sewing machines, which she used to make and sell clothes to buy food for her children.

In 1966, she emigrated to England to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Surjit and Ajit Rai.

When Surjit died in 1972, Mrs Bajwa agreed - at the age of 74 - to raise her four grandchildren as her own.

Her family described her as a devoted Sikh and said it was her faith which gave her the 'optimism and strength' to survive so long.

There is a slight dispute as to her exact age. Her Indian passport states her date of birth as simply 1898, but her family say her birthday is on January 1 while the Government has it down as December 31.

Even if the latter date is correct, that still made her the UK's oldest person, having outlasted 27 British prime ministers and six kings and queens during her life. The earlier date would also have made her the world's second oldest person.

Hounslow's oldest resident is now believed to be Rose Bicknell, who turned 110 on July 13.