A resident from Abbeycrest Nursing Home who helped build aeroplane wings during the Second World War has celebrated her 101st birthday.
Ethel Fuller was born in Caversham on May 9, 1922 and has lived in the area all her life.
She was 14 when she got her first job working in the cream room at Reading biscuit manufacturer Huntley & Palmers in Kings Road.
Ethel met her husband George Fuller while on a Conservative club outing. Their first date was on Good Friday 1938, a few weeks before her 16th birthday, when George asked her to go on a bicycle ride.
The couple were married in 1942 when George was on leave from the war. He served in the Middle East.
During the war Ethel worked at Markhams, an automotive body maker in Caversham Road, helping to make Spitfire wings. After the war she returned to Huntley & Palmers to do evening work.
The couple had two sons and stayed together for 67 years until George passed away in 2009.
Mrs Fuller, who has lived during four monarchies, celebrated her birthday at Abbeycrest where she has lived since September last year. The team at Abbeycrest presented her with a cake and flowers.
Regional Sales Support Manager George King said: “Ethel’s very caring, chatty and a really lovely person. She was very grateful to us all for making the effort on her birthday. She really enjoyed the King Charles’s coronation, especially all the pomp and pageantry.”
