To reach 100 years of age is quite a feat, but for two sisters to both reach the milestone is nothing short of extraordinary.

This is the situation that Coverack resident Ida Jane Murphy was celebrating on Wednesday, with friends and family at Porthgwara Nursing Home.

Her son Richard said his mother enjoyed a “marvellous” birthday, adding: “Like her eldest sister ‘Tommy’ before her, she is happy to have made the magic 100 and still counting.”

He also thanked the staff and other residents at the nursing home for creating such a happy atmosphere, in particular manager Judith Peachey and Gill Basher.

Ida was born on January 7 1909 in the village of Dagenham, Essex as the youngest of five children.

Two years of her childhood was spent living with her aunt in Holsworthy, Devon, after being evacuated there during the First World War.

On leaving school she joined the fashion house Selincourts, where one of her duties was to be a model for the latest designer-ware, while at the same time being expected to turn her hand to needlework – a skill that proved invaluable in later life.

In April 1936 Ida married husband Jerrold, to whom she was wed for 57 happy years until his death in April 1993. In February 1940, after being sent to Bude in Cornwall to escape the bombing that in the end did not happen, she returned home to Surrey for the birth of her only child, Richard.

Soon after this they were all transferred to Bedfordshire for the rest of the Second World War, and during this time she took on three evacuees from the blitz – making four infants under the age of four to care for.

At the end of war Ida and Jerrold returned to live in Surrey for the next 48 years together. She spent a further nine years on her own before she moved to Porthgwara Nursing Home to be near to her son and daughter in law, Richard and Patty, also receiving visits from grandsons Simon and Mark when they are in the county.

During her long life Ida’s many interests ranged from giving time for her family and friends, gardening, cooking and needlework, especially making lampshades.

She shared and supported her husband’s passion for the River Thames, both as oarsman and sailor members of Kingston Rowing and Thames Sailing Clubs.

Long before the package holiday was invented, Ida and Jerrold were very adventurous in their travels, with annual visits to their beloved Cornwall and then across the English Channel with their car. They later made visits to family and friends in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the Far East and America.