Centenarian Marian and her top-secret role in fight against the Nazis

WARTIME secretary who played a top-secret role at a north Wales RAF base has celebrated her 100th birthday.

- David Powell reports on a very special birthday party at a care home, as Nia Williams tells how her mother sat in on high-level military meetings during World War II

Marian Williams celebrates her 100th birthday at Bryn Seiont Newydd, Caernarfon. Pictured are Marian with granddaughters Elin and Eleri Stevenson, son-in-law Melvin Williams and daughter Nia Williams, and staff Mercy Uke, Tania Tate, Jennifer Ives, Alison Owen and Angela Williams

(Mandy Jones)

Marian Williams, who was just 14 when the Second World War broke out, went to work as a teenage secretary at a mansion near Beaumaris that was requisitioned by the RAF.

Her momentous milestone was marked with a lively party at Pendine Park's Bryn Seiont Newydd care home in Caernarfon, where staff and family gathered to honour her century of memories.

Daughter Nia Williams explained that her mother worked close to a busy RAF base on the Menai Strait where Catalina sea planes arrived to be taken into Allied service during the war. More than 700 of the aircraft were delivered to the RAF from late-1941 onwards and were used by various Coastal Command squadrons for reconnaissance, antisubmarine patrols and search-and-rescue missions.

“She would sit in on the meetings between the RAF officers and the Americans who were based in Beaumaris at the time and later type up the minutes,” said Nia.