Florence Bechelet with her Battle of Flowers float Feathered Beauty. Picture by Richard Wainwright (00359070)

THE longest serving Battle of Flowers stalwart is today celebrating her 75th anniversary of entering floats into the parade.

Florence Bechelet (91) entered her first individual exhibit in 1934, at the age of 16, and has only missed a handful of parades since.

Miss Bechelet, who has run the Battle of Flowers Museum in St Ouen since 1971, is currently the only wild-flower exhibitor in the annual parade.

‘I feel very proud to be the oldest exhibitor in the Battle and to have done more floats than anyone else,’ she said.

Miss Bechelet said that she first got the ‘Battle bug’ back in 1928. ‘I was ten years old and I saw the St Peter exhibit – a big ship decorated with hydrangeas,’ she said. ‘I thought I would love to do that, but nobody wanted to help me.

‘Then, when I was 16, my grandparents had an old pram in their loft, which I asked them for. I dismantled it and kept the four wheels and chassis, which I turned into a float, with a clock and two vases on it. I got third place in my class and won 50 pence. That’s how I got started.’

After a few years of entering floats with fresh flowers, Miss Bechelet made her first wild-flower exhibit – the Weather House – in 1937. It won first in class. When the Battle restarted after the war, she resumed entering wild-flower exhibits again. ‘I can’t understand why more people don’t use wild flowers,’ she said.

Miss Bechelet retired from the Battle in 1994, but it was short lived and she began entering again in 1998.

This year’s exhibit is called On The Lawn – Her Majesty with her Corgis. She began making it last October and completed it a fortnight ago.

‘It shows the Queen with her eight corgis,’ said Miss Bechelet. ‘Unfortunately she lost one of them a couple of months ago, but I had already made eight so they will all be going on the float. There will be three soldiers pulling the exhibit.’

Miss Bechelet said that her favourite entry over the years has been her Christmas-themed float, when she played Father Christmas. Because of her age, she is no longer able to walk with her exhibit, but she still enjoys watching her float in the parade, from the main grandstand.

‘I love entering Battle so much,’ she said. ‘It’s something I’ve always really enjoyed doing. I love creating something new.

‘’Where can you find anything like the Battle of Flowers anywhere else in the world? It’s such a marvellous event. And when I see the crowds clapping I think it’s worth all the hard work. It gives me so much pleasure.’