A 100-year-old woman was left bitterly disappointed after a mix-up meant she did not receive her birthday telegram from the Queen.

Royal Mail has apologised to Jane Howes after her royal telegram was locked inside a safe at a sorting office in Thornton Heath, instead of being delivered on Saturday, September 2.

Great-grandmother Jane celebrated her 100th birthday with family, who threw a party at her daughter's house in Virginia Road, Thornton Heath.

She was eagerly anticipating the arrival of the telegram, which should have been hand-delivered by 1pm that day.

Jane's daughter Pauline Thomas said: "She kept asking about the telegram. It's the one thing she was really looking forward to.

"It got to about 4pm and it still hadn't turned up. We were phoning Buckingham Palace to find out where it was.

"Mum's sight isn't great so at one point we fashioned a home-made telegram to cheer her up. She knew what we were up to though. She looked so sad and kept saying 'they must have forgotten me'."

Jane's family discovered the telegram had been locked in a Royal Mail safe since leaving Buckingham Palace on August 31.

Karen Mills, Pauline's daughter and Jane's granddaughter, added: "Reaching 100 is an impressive milestone. She deserved to have that telegram delivered on time. We could all see it had upset her. Her birthday would have been perfect had she got the telegram - it's a really big deal to her."

The manager of the Thornton Heath sorting office personally delivered Jane's telegram on Monday morning - along with a bunch of flowers to apologise for the mix-up.

However, Jane's family noticed the incorrect house number had been written on the envelope, which may have been a contributing factor.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "It was misplaced then locked in the safe over the weekend. It was delivered by the sorting office manager himself on Monday with a bouquet of flowers."