Centenarian Alexandrina Guiver never forgets a good deed – even after almost 70 years.

Mrs Guiver celebrated her 100th birthday this week in Abingdon and asked all of her family and well-wishers not to buy a present but instead to make a donation to the Salvation Army.

It was almost 70 years ago that the organisation took in her fiance Derek after he had narrowly escaped capture by the Japanese in the fall of Singapore.

The young Miss Smith, as she was, was told Derek was missing and presumed dead.

However, he had managed to flee the Japanese invaders and spent several days on a boat in the ocean, before being taken to Australia and passed into the care of the Salvation Army, who looked after him, even though he had no official papers.

The couple’s daughter Margaret Gascoyne said: “In honour of that, my mother has not asked for any presents for her 100th birthday, but donations to the Salvation Army instead.

“My mother has such an amazing memory, she remembers people from throughout her life.”

Mrs Guiver was born and raised in Argyll, Western Scotland and grew up in Campbeltown.

Working in a butcher’s shop, it was in the town that she met her future husband Derek.

He was in the Royal Navy and was visiting the town as an officer teaching at a nearby naval training school.

The two soon became engaged.

The couple married in Uxbridge in 1944 and moved to Didcot in 1954 to be near the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Mr Guiver died in 1979, aged 68.

Together they had three children, Margaret, Frances and Ian, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Her daughter Frances flew in with her family from South Africa to join in with the festivities.

Mrs Gascoyne said: “My mother is a woman of great contentment. She is a very happy lady and she says that is what has kept her going for so many years.

“She has so many friends wherever she goes. She’s an amazing lady.”

Mrs Guiver herself added: “I’m a very happy person.”