A WOMAN known as the ‘Spitfire girl’ has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Joan Wilson, currently a resident at Southerndown Care Home in Chipping Norton, reached the major milestone on Sunday.

Her brother, John Skeats, said: “Joan was called the ‘Spitfire girl’ during the war because she used to mend the Spitfires at De Havilland in Witney that were damaged during the fighting.

“She used to repair all sorts of aircraft and then after the war, she became a housewife.”

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Mr Skeats said Mrs Wilson loves her family and that it was sad he could not celebrate her milestone birthday due to coronavirus restrictions.

Mrs Wilson was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex, with her family moving to West Oxordshire at the outbreak of the Second World War and settling in Crawley.

She has spent most of her life in West Oxfordshire, aside from a brief spell in Ireland.