IF using your brain is supposed to help you keep going longer, Wenda Reynolds is the living proof.

The Oxford University graduate, who worked with Alan Turing at codebreaking HQ Bletchley Park during the Second World War, celebrated her 103rd birthday on Monday.

She shared jokes and memories over a slice of birthday cake at St Katharine's House care home in Wantage.

Ms Reynolds only moved into the Wantage home this summer: three years ago when she celebrated her 100th, she was still living independently in West Hanney.

Born in Cardiff, the only child of GP Benn Reynolds and Helen Elizabeth Reynolds, the family later moved to Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.

A passion for literature led her to study English at St Hugh’s, Oxford, her only ambition being 'I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher'.

In 1940, Ms Reynolds took a job at Bletchley Park, headquarters of the government’s Code and Cypher School.

Her job was to find new recruits and interview applicants. Like all staff, she was sworn to secrecy about her work.

Among her colleagues was the brilliant mathematician and code breaker Alan Turing.

She told this paper in 2014: "He used to pass by my window when he went to lunch.

"He was very shy and withdrawn, always looking down at the ground.

"He had a girlfriend then, but that didn’t work out."

After retiring in 1975, Ms Reynolds, who never married or had any children, moved to the house in West Hanney where she lived for the next 40 years.