WW2 veteran Brenda Bothwell celebrates 100th birthday

Brenda Bothwell, of Grays Fair Court in New Costessey, near Norwich, celebrated her 100th birthday on January 5 with family, fellow residents, staff, and members of the RAF Benevolent Fund.   

A former Royal Air Force (WRAF) member, she was born in Derby and moved to Acle, near Great Yarmouth, at the age of five. 

She joined the WRAF when she was 17, requiring permission from her mother as she was under 18.  

She was a corporal and a plotter – pushing counters around big maps to monitor air traffic when the battles were going on and when the squadron was going up. 

She was also recently invited to a veteran’s dinner at RAF Marham and has attended VIP days at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. 

Her daughter Tracy and her family have requested a military record of service for her, to try to locate which centre she had worked in. 

Tracy said: “When we were in Duxford, they’ve got a plotting table and she was talking to the guides and she was saying ‘my table wasn’t like this, it was much bigger’ and they said to her ‘you weren’t in a normal centre then, you must have been in a command centre – there were only two of those in the country.'" 

Following the war, Mrs Bothwell worked in London at a solicitor’s office.  

She met her husband in London, and eventually moved with him to Norfolk again, where they bought a house on Denton Road, off Chartwell Road. They lived there for the rest of their married life.  

Mrs Bothwell has three children, seven grandchildren, and three great grandchildren – with a fourth on the way. 

Saffron’s head of wellbeing and partnerships, Tracey Dowse, said: “Brenda and her family have enjoyed helping out in the garden and it has been so lovely to learn all about Brenda’s life and accomplishments.” 

Amy Fenn, manager at Grays Fair Court, said: “Everyone loves having Brenda here, she’s a real part of the family now.”