A UK woman who received a posthumous message from Queen Elizabeth II to mark her 100th birthday has described feeling "very privileged".

Gwendolyn Hoare said she had been "devastated" by the death of the monarch last Thursday, which came on the cusp of her huge personal milestone.

The next day, however, Hoare received a delivery she had been looking forward to for decades - a telegram signed by the late Queen.

Pallbearers carry the coffin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as the hearse arrives at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Photo / Getty

It would have been one of Queen Elizabeth II's final birthday messages, which were sent to those celebrating their 100th and 105th birthday - and every year thereafter.

Hoare, who turned 100 on Sunday, told the BBC: "It makes me quite tearful. I am a royalist, old-fashioned. I was [surprised]. What an honour."

She added: "I very much admired [the late Queen] and all she did.

"So when she went it was a sad moment but she didn't go before she sent me this. I wasn't sure that I would get it but I was thrilled when I did."

The message is already in a frame on Hoare's wall, according to the broadcaster.

Hoare's niece, Sue Beckett, added: "For decades she talked about receiving a telegram from the Queen and was devastated to hear the news… but her telegram arrived [on Friday] and she was ecstatic."

It is thought the late Queen sent hundreds of thousands of telegrams to people in the UK to mark their 100th birthday over the course of her lifetime.