Elfrida enjoys relaxed afternoon to celebrate special day

Elfrida Harper-Tarr MBE also ran the post office from 1954 and celebrated the milestone on July 14 at Banbury’s Green Pastures Christian Nursing Home, where she had a tea party with her family and friends.

She received a birthday card from the Queen and a telegram from Iain Duncan Smith, but was also paid a visit by two scout members from the Whistley 2000 Scout Group based in Turweston.

David Edwards, group scout leader, and Alison Westcott, Beaver leader, presented her with a framed photograph of the group outside the village’s methodist chapel, which Mrs Harper-Tarr and her late husband Reg had purchased for the guides and scouts in 1960.

She started the first brownie pack in 1955 using the Turweston Village Hall and then formed a cub pack. With numbers growing a new meeting place was needed. When the village’s methodist chapel was put up for sale, the couple worked hard to raise funds to buy it for the cubs.

While Mrs Harper-Tarr ran the brownies, guides and cub, her husband ran the scouts until his death in 1971 and in the 1980s she was awarded the Silver Acorn by the Scouting Movement.

She was later to be awarded an MBE for services to the community and scouting.