Happy centenary to you, Ellen Cooper

Thatcham resident celebrates 100th birthday

A HAPPY 100th birthday to you, Ellen Cooper.

When Mrs Cooper, nee Golding, was born on April 5, a double celebration this year as Easter Sunday fell on the same date, Pluto had been photographed for the first time and ‘Typhoid Mary’ had been placed under a life-long quarantine.

The centenarian spent her early life in Leckhampstead and Peasemore before working in services at the former army depot in Thatcham, where she lived most of her life.

It was at the depot where she met her husband Eric and the couple had one child, David.

The eldest resident at the Notrees care home in Kintbury celebrated the milestone with a party thrown by her family, including her son David, grandaughter Clare – who made her birthday cake – and great-grandaughters Ava and Sophia.

The last of five siblings, Mrs Cooper received congratulatory cards from the Queen and the secretary of state for work and pensions Iain Duncan Smith.

Mr Cooper described his mother as very placid and very hard working.

He and his wife Judith recalled how Ellen loved her garden, so much so that she was gardening up until her 90s.