High Wycombe woman and WWII hero celebrates 105th birthday

Kay Thomas recalls being a plotter in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) where she played a part in the key battle which foiled Adolf Hitler’s plans to invade the United Kingdom.

The pensioner is now a resident at Royal Star & Garter in the town and on Saturday, August 31, she was surrounded by friends and family to mark the occasion for her milestone birthday.

Kay lives at the Royal Star & Garter in High Wycombe (Image: Royal Star & Garter)

Her daughter, Sue, said: “Mum remembers on several occasions Winston Churchill looking down on them, his ‘face wreathed in cigar smoke’.

“Mum is almost certainly one of the last remaining survivors of those servicemen and women who fought for our country in WWII, and one of the last remaining women to have served during the Battle of Britain.”

The centenarian was born in Southsea, Hampshire on August 30, 1919, less than a year after WWI had ended.

She met her husband, Bill, shortly after the conclusion of WWII, and they soon married.

She served in WWII and is thought to be one of the last surviving members of her group (Image: Royal Star & Garter)

The couple lived in Ickenham, Hillingdon, and went on to have three children.

Kay is now a great grandmother, and despite now living with dementia, she has vivid memories of that historic time between 1939 and 1945.

She was working as a plotter, 60 feet below ground in ‘The Bunker’ at RAF Uxbridge.

The role of a plotter was a vital one, tracking enemy planes as they made their way to Britain on bombing raids.

Receiving information from radar stations and the Observer Corps, they used a pusher on the end of a long rod to display the positions of the aircraft on a map drawn on a huge table.

Sue added: “I’m glad she’s now at a charity like Royal Star & Garter, which provides such loving care to our veterans.

Kay with her group during WWII between 1939 and 1945 (Image: NA)

“She had a wonderful party, and enjoyed celebrating her 105th birthday with her family and with other residents at Royal Star & Garter.”

Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia, and also has Homes in Solihull and Surbiton.

It has also launched new services reaching out into the community.

For more information on this, the new services it provides, or to work at the home, go to www.starandgarter.org/hw.

At this present time, the Royal Star & Garter in High Wycombe is welcoming new residents.