Beaconsfield stalwart Margaret Cooke has celebrated her 109th birthday with a visit from the mayor and town crier.

Mrs Cooke, of Hedgerley Lane was born in 1900 when Queen Victoria was still on the throne and British troops were fighting in the Boer War in South Africa.

Florrie Baldwin, of Pudsey, is Britain's oldest person at 113 but Mrs Cooke is among the oldest women in the country.

Her son, John Cooke, said on Tuesday: “Today went really nicely – my mother has lived in Beaconsfield for the last 40 years and she loves it here. I think she enjoyed seeing the various dignitaries.”

Mrs Cooke was born in Falmouth, Cornwall and lived in Kent, Scotland and Wales before settling in Beaconsfield.

Her husband John Cooke was in the Royal Marines and he died in 1960.