Mary Purver, who won an MBE for her services to the wartime Special Operations Executive, which sent agents behind enemy lines, celebrated her 101st birthday on Friday.

She has been a resident at St Katherine's Nursing Home, in Ormond Road, Wantage, for the past 25 years.

Until recently, Mrs Purver was forbidden by the Official Secrets Act from talking about her wartime work, but said: "It was very frightening at times, we knew a lot about the enemy that others didn't know."

After the war, Mrs Purver left the Civil Service to care for her ailing mother and sister, and later worked as a librarian at top public girls' school Beneden. Here, while in her 50s, she met her future husband John, who was working at the school as head gardener.

She said it was their shared love of gardening that brought them together. They had no children.

Mrs Purver is passionate about classical music, biographies and gardening, and said she owes her long life to keeping active - walking everywhere and never taking the bus.

She added: "I've always worked and I've been lucky enough to enjoy all of my jobs."

She moved to Wantage in 1982 after the death of her husband.