Nursing home staff paid tribute to a 105-year old British woman who had smoked since the age of 15 by cremating her with a packet of cigarettes and laying a large floral cigarette on her coffin.

Marie Ellis died - of natural causes - at the Eaton Lodge Nursing Home in Kent, southeast England, in early December and was cremated on Tuesday, clutching a packet of her favorite Benson and Hedges cigarettes.

"We will always remember her for her smoking because the first thing she asked when she got up was 'Can I have a cigarette,'" said matron Maria Kallis, who commissioned a large wreath in the shape of a cigarette, made with white and yellow chrysanthemums, for the spinster's coffin.

The enigmatic Ellis, an ex-typist, arrived at the nursing home 15 years ago.

Apart from her 15-a-day habit, she was also notorious among staff for her unhealthy eating habits, often asking for sugar in her soup and always demanding three sugars in her coffee.