30176-38TEN years ago Nell Raymond was sent a birthday message from US senator Edward Kennedy. And on Saturday she received a card from the Queen as she celebrated her 100th year.
Swindon-born Mrs Raymond, who now lives at Whitbourne House, Park South, met the famous member of the Kennedy clan during a trip to see the Senate in action while she was in Washington to see her Royal Navy Captain son John. She made several trips to the American capital to see her son. She also visited him when he was stationed on the Royal Yacht.
Her daughter-in-law, Joyce, said the former Great Western Railway secretary was already used to secrecy. During the war, while she was working at Holt station near Bradford-on-Avon, she used to deal with secret armament trains while the stationmaster went off to the races.
Her husband, Maurice, died in 1965 and Capt Raymond, her only child, died two years ago. But Mrs Raymond, who is the oldest and only surviving child of five and also helped to bring up her nephew, Graham, has two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
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