UNLESS they have spent the past month on a Martian holiday then most Journal readers will know that tomorrow (Friday) is another remarkable day in the life of one of the country's best-known senior citizens.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother will mark her 100th birthday and, perhaps, think back to the momentous changes of the last century.

When she was born the Boer War was still being fought in South Africa, Queen Victoria was on the throne and the world had still to see the horrors unleashed by two world wars and the Cold War.

The motor car was in its infancy, Britannia ruled the waves and the computer age was not even the stuff of science fiction. National celebrations have already been in full swing for several weeks, and among those with good reason to remember the Queen Mother with affection is Moreton pensioner Molly Jelly.

She believes the Queen Mother, then the Queen, was responsible for helping her find a house when she was left homeless with three children at the end of the Second World War.

The story is covered in one of her autobiographical books, Butchers, Billets and Buses, where she relates how, in 1946, she and her three children, one a small baby and the others aged nine and five, found themselves homeless and were forced to seek refuge as squatters in an old army camp in Mickleton.

Her hut was 40ft long and 20ft wide and empty, apart from the few pieces of furniture she had taken with her.

The North Cotswold Rural District Council provided her with a range to cook on but the only heating came from a paraffin stove.

Washing clothes was done with a saucepan on the cooker.

She moved in during the summer, but then winter set in with the cold and heavy snows. Mrs Jelly said: "It got colder and colder and my legs were covered with chilblains up to my knees.

"It was an awful time and I found it very difficult to keep up my spirits. I kept wondering what on earth I had done to deserve it.

"I couldn't see any way to keep my kids alive and I got more angry as time went on, asking myself how a soldier's wife, whose husband was still in Germany, could be treated in this way."

With the council unable to provide the home she desperately wanted in Moreton, Mrs Jelly eventually became so fed up that she wrote to the Queen. "I poured my heart out, page after page."

A week later a reply came from Buckingham Palace, saying: "The Queen has asked me to thank you for your letter, which has been forwarded to the proper authorities for attention."

Within three weeks she had been offered a new house in Moreton and she still believes that it was due to the Queen Mother's intervention.

She said this week: "I have sent a big card to her with one of my books."

"I only ever saw her once," she added. "That was in Manchester and I thought what beautiful skin she had. She still looks as good as new and she's never miserable. She's marvellous."