FAMILY and friends were on hand to celebrate a special day with a very extraordinary woman, who worked for Winston Churchill during the Second World War and played tennis with John F Kennedy.

Muriel Cooper, a resident of The Fairways in Chippenham, celebrated turning 100-years-old on April 7 where she was joined by her daughter, Elona, son, Graham, and youngest grand-daughter, Catherine, as well as friends.

After being born in Sligo, Ireland, on April 7, 1917, Mrs Cooper moved to the UK just before the outbreak of the Second World War where she worked for the Home Office in London.

She worked for then Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the cabinet war rooms under the cabinet office, and after the war she got married in 1952 to her husband, Harold.

They moved to Shrewsbury in Shropshire where she lived until 2013, before she moved to The Fairways just after Christmas last year.

Her son, Graham, said: “She’s in good spirits, she knows what’s going on but I think it came as a surprise that she’s 100-years-old.

“Friends visited on Friday and on Saturday all the family came down, I’ve got three children, Emma, Sam and Catherine, and a number of other relatives.

“She used to be very into music and singing, she won a number of competitions and used to enjoy playing bridge.

“There’s a story that when she was in London during the war, that John F Kennedy’s father, who was the United States ambassador to the UK, invited her and her friend to make up the numbers at a game of tennis and it was with John Kennedy and his brother.

“That’s a claim to fame and I wasn’t expecting her to see her 100th birthday.”