A ROMSEY woman has celebrated turning 100 with her family on Leap Day.

Joan King reached the milestone on Saturday, February 29, but this year has been her 25th chance to celebrate on her day of birth.

Joan marked the special day with her family by having lunch at the IBM Hursley Club, Hursley, where she was treated to a film featuring photographs of her from every decade.

The 100-year-old, who lives at Edwina Mountbatten House, Broadwater Road, received a card from the Queen which she opened in front of friends and residents on Friday, February 28.

Joan’s first son, Alan King, said: “The reception at the home was amazing; it was as if the Queen had given everybody in the home the cards herself.”

Joan was born on February 29, 1920 in Great Yarmouth to Vera and Tom Bonney.

She was the youngest of four – one brother and two sisters.

Joan attended the Notre Dame in Norwich, where her first ambition was to become a “nun” while she attended the convent school, according to Alan.

In 1938, Joan joined the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes as a trainee manager and was based at R.A.F. Marham, where in 1939 she met her future husband Albert King.

The couple then tied the knot on January, 15 1940, in Great Yarmouth.

Three weeks after Alan was born in November 1940, Albert was posted to Egypt on 38 bomber squadron supporting the Desert Rats, where he did not return to the UK until 1944.

Joan also gave birth to two more sons, Eric and John, and service life ended in 1962 when the couple moved to Kesgrave near Woodbridge.

On January 17, 1955, just two days after their 55th wedding anniversary, Albert died suddenly at home.

After her husband’s death, Joan moved to Bridge Court in Middlebridge street, Romsey, in 2008.

The 100-year-old decided in 2015 she would hold her own wake, as she “wanted to be present”, according to Alan.

Joan also held another wake when she was 99-years-old.

Various falls and fractures meant Joan could no longer live at home and in November 2017 she moved into Edwina Mountbatten House for short term respite, which became a permanent move.

When asked what Joan’s philosophy through life has been, she said “you can’t keep a good woman down”.