A SECOND World War servicewoman celebrated her 100th birthday with some current personnel from RAF Brize Norton.

Connie Hodges was also joined by her daughter, granddaughters and great-granddaughters for the party at Stirlings care home in Wantage on Monday.

She even enjoyed some live entertainment in the form of a singer booked with the help of her daughter Janet Browning, who lives in Wantage.

Mrs Browning said: "It was a brilliant day – we all got a bit emotional and mum was very impressed."

Born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, on December 18, 1917, after school the young Connie Smith trained as a librarian and worked briefly in a private library in the town.

After the outbreak of war in 1939, when she was just 21, she signed up with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).

Not long after she met the man who was to be the love of her life – Douglas Hodges – who was an electrician in the RAF.

Mrs Browning said: "My father served as an electrician, but he had started off working in the cook house and used to give my mum extra fruit cake and things.

"She only signed up to the WAAF because of the Second World War but she ended up becoming a corporal, so she had a higher rank than my father.

"After he trained as an electrician he was sent out to Africa, but they already knew each other by then."

After the war when the couple were married, they moved to Lewisham in London.

They had their first child, Michael, in 1944, then their daughter Janet two years later.

Michael passed away when he was just 25 from an incurable brain infection.

Out of the RAF, Mr Hodges struggled to get work as an electrician so they moved to Adlestone in Surrey and took on a newsagents.

Mrs Browning said she remembered the toys, sweets and fireworks her parents sold to her and her friends and, when she was old enough, working on weekends.

Mrs Hodges did not work full time in the shop but helped out when she was needed.

The shop was eventually taken over and Mr Hodges went to work in Woking, Surrey, while Mrs Hodges worked in various shops in Adlestone.

In their free time Mr and Mrs Hodges went ballroom dancing.

Mrs Browning said: "My dad was particularly accomplished: when he was young he used to go to a dance and would just pick the best dancer in the room, but they weren't competitive – it was all for fun.

"I think mum and dad were always happy – they laughed a lot.

"My dad was a very nice person, very kind and unselfish, and used to do a lot for mum."

Mrs Browning and her husband Richard moved to Wantage when he got a job at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell.

Mr Hodges passed away in 2010, and Mrs Hodges came to live at Grovelands care home in Wantage in 2010 then moved to Stirlings in January this year.