Centenarian receives WWII Service Medals

Mrs Margaret Wilkins, of Long Crendon, near Thame, served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), then the women’s wing of the British Army, between October 1941 and July 1945.

Mrs Wilkins was stationed at various facilities along the south coast and in East Anglia, including Fort Southwick in Portsmouth, where, amongst other duties, she was tasked with receiving messages from the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park and checking troop movements on the plotting table for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France.

Her medals, together with her service records, were presented at her hundredth birthday party on 14th January by Colonel Leona Barr-Jones of the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) Association.

The ATS was merged into the WRAC in 1949, which was in turn dissolved into several other regiments more than forty years later. Her late majesty Queen Elizabeth famously joined the ATS in 1945, where she worked as a truck mechanic and driver.

Mrs Wilkins was born in 1924 in Bedford. In 1945, after leaving the ATS, she met and married her husband Fred, a farm labourer, with whom she raised three children, daughters Rosamund and Christine, and son Alan.

The couple lived first in Pitstone, and then moved to Hampshire, before retiring back to Long Crendon.

Since being widowed in 2003, Mrs Wilkins has continued to live independently in her own home, often enjoying visits or news from her seven grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren and sole great-great-grandchild.

Her son-in-law, Terry Oliver said: “The celebration was remarkable…The colonel made such a fuss of mum, saluting her and thanking her for her part in Operation Overlord. There were a few wet eyes.”

Alongside the customary royal telegram, letters of congratulation were also sent by Greg Smith MP and the Aylesbury Branch of the Royal British Legion, for which a collection was taken up at the birthday party.