A former matron who looked after schoolchildren at Longleat House during the Bath Blitz celebrated her 100th birthday on Sunday.

Jane Horton was treated to a party at the Trowbridge Oaks nursing home in West Ashton Road, where she was surrounded by close friends, including many from St James' Church, enjoyed a cake and showed off her telegram from the Queen.

Her friend-of-20-years, Phil Ash, said: “She thoroughly enjoyed herself at the party and when I opened her telegram for her, she asked whether the Queen was coming to see her.”

Mrs Horton was born in Burton on Trent on March 28, 1909, and went to school at Howells School for girls in South Wales, one of the oldest girl’s schools remaining in Wales.

After finishing school, her headmistress invited her to become the matron at the Royal School of Bath and when the Second World War broke out, the children were transferred to the Longleat Estate, where she also went and worked along side the former Lord Bath.

She looked after a group of around 50 children and had previously said to her friends that her biggest fear after the Bath Blitz was a bomb coming down on to Longleat.

Mrs Horton met her husband, ‘Snowy’ Charles Horton, in the 1930s when she moved to Trowbridge. He was a well-known tennis player who ended up playing at Wimbledon in the men’s singles.