Veteran 'clippie' Winnie celebrates 100th birthday

A popular 'clippie' who met her husband working on the buses in Windsor during the war has celebrated her 100th birthday in the town.

Winnie Sawyers was one of a select group of woman bus conductors who cheered people up during the dark days of the 1940s.

She was born in a small Irish village in County Galway, coming to England at 17 to live with an aunt in Preston, where she first worked as a 'clippie'.

She came to Windsor during the war and joined London Transport, based in the town's bus depot where she met her future husband Bill.

He was also a conductor - having been invalided out of the Royal West Kent Regiment after being injured at Dunkirk.

They married in September 1944 and raised their son William in Windsor. 

Bill died in 1995. Winnie now lives at Queen's Court Care Home in Dedworth Road.

Her daughter-in-law Joan said: "Winnie was on the buses all through the war and has worked in numerous places since, including King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor, at the train station and on the production line at Brylcreem when it was at Maidenhead.  

"She went to Buckingham Palace and met the Queen at a Christmas party. Bill was working as a warden at the castle after he retired from Mars in Slough."

Her big day was on March 13 and she celebrated with a small family get together at Queen's Court.

Winnie has one son William, daughter-in-law Joan,  grand-daughters Rebecca and Hannah.

She has three great-grandchildren, Lily, seven, Evie, four and Jack, eight months.