RESIDENTS of Ford Street have gathered to celebrate the 100th birthday of Barbara Tracy.

Barbara was born on October 22, 1919, in London where her father was a barrister.

She was educated in Kensington and presented to the Queen as a débutante – a ritual now discontinued.

But when the Second World War started in 1939 she moved out of the city, while her father continued to work in the London Blitz.

Barbara took up basic jobs to help the war effort including working in a munitions factory and driving RAF personnel at Dunkeswell Airfield on the Blackdown Hills – often they were airmen on their way to or returning from bombing missions.

She returned to Somerset 20 years later with her late husband. After a year living in Taunton, they moved to Ford Street where she has now lived for more than 50 years.

Other work has included support for St John’s Ambulance and Wellington Museum. In her early 90s, she was still playing for Wellington Croquet Club as part of the team and won a club competition.

In 2015 she fell ill with chronic anaemia and was sent home from hospital after being given two weeks to two months to live.

Somehow she pulled through, and although not as fit and able as she once was, she celebrated her 100th birthday in reasonable health and with a telegram from the Her Majesty Queen.

She is looked after by her son and a carer from Hungary. They will be accompanying her on a short holiday to the south coast to stay in a hotel next to the old hotel where she spent her honeymoon more than 70 years ago.