Darlington centenarian was in the WAAF during the war

Hetty Iseton, who enjoyed a birthday party with her family and friends at Middleton Hall Retirement Village, near Darlington, where she lives, is following in the footsteps of her late mother, who lived to be 100.

She was pictured alongside her mother, Adelaide, when she featured in The Northern Echo for her 100th birthday in January 1982.

The centenarian said: “It was quite unusual to reach 100 in my mother’s era. It must be in the genes, with my 100th birthday.

“I’ve always worked hard and led an active life. I could never sit still – I always had to be doing something.”

Ms Iseton has lived at Middleton Hall for 12 years and used to cycle through its grounds when she was younger to reach the camp where she was based during the Second World War.

She grew up in West Cornforth, near Sedgefield, where her father was manager of the nearby slagworks, and was a hairdresser until war broke out and she was called up, opting to join the WAAF.

Ms Iseton, who never married, was based at RAF Goosepool, later known as RAF Middleton St George, now Durham Tees Valley Airport.

It was used as an RAF Bomber Command station and Hetty, who’d been taught to drive by her father, was assigned to drive officers from the Royal Canadian Air Force around in an RAF Jeep.

Recalling her WAAF days, she said: “It was very sad at times. The airmen used to say ‘we’re going on big ops over Germany’ and many of them didn’t come back. But we all had a job to do and we did it.”