A WOMAN who survived a crash in a Lancaster bomber at the end of the Second World War has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Friends and family from as far away as Africa joined Mrs Eileen Beresford for a special celebration at the home of her son Nigel in Tidenham.

Born at home in Ealing, London, on September 8, 1919, she had an older brother and sister and was educated at Haberdashers’ School in the capital.

After a stint working for Barclays Bank, she joined the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and was based at Northolt in Lincolnshire before moving to Barton Hall near Preston, the operations centre for the RAF Number Nine Group, based on the fighter plotting tables.

She met her future husband, Donald, who was a navigator/gunner who served three tours with Bomber Command before being transferred to Coastal Command.

As a member of the WAAF, Mrs Beresford was able to fly over Germany to see the damage inflicted by Bomber Command.

The Lancaster she was travelling in crash- landed, but she was not seriously injured.

The couple married in 1947 and they lived in Kenya and Uganda as Don was employed in the Crown Service.

Mrs Beresford, who was a secretary at that time, was also a keen painter and the family still has some beautiful oil paintings of the African bush from that era.

Their first son Nigel was born in Kenya, and twins Jeremy and Brenda were then born while they were living in Uganda.

In 1965, the family moved back to the UK where they bought the Menwinnion Hotel in Cornwall before they moved back to Africa where Don worked for the police in Swaziland.

They also toured Namibia and Botswana before coming back home to Weymouth in the early 1980s, and later moving to Chepstow.

Mr Beresford died when he was 89.

Mrs Beresford still shops for herself, cooks and keeps her house immaculate, said son Jerry.

He added: “She has had a colourful and fulfilling life and a very happy marriage.”