A "CANARY girl" who worked in the Rotherwas Munitions Factory during the war has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Elizabeth Cross, from How Caple, turned 100 on January 4 and celebrated with family.

She was one of the "Canary Girls" who worked at the factory during the Second World War and was one of the women honoured last year by the Prime Minister following a BBC Hereford and Worcester campaign.

Her daughter, Penelope Bayly, said: "They recognised her war effort working in the munitions factory at Rotherwas as the so-called "Canary girls."

"After she got the medal for being part of the "Canary Girls" effort she was then invited with the other women to go up to No 10 Downing Street and meet Theresa May."

She came down so badly with jaundice while working at the factory that she left and joined the RAF in intelligence. She was a plotter to Fighter Command.

Mrs Cross then joined the Glider Pilot Regiment as part of the Airborne Force and briefed and debriefed air crews.

She went to Germany after the war with the Intelligence Bureau and was there for about a year. She returned and lived in London before moving back to Herefordshire.

Mrs Cross was born in Ledbury and married in the town to Captain John Cross in 1951.

They lived in Dymock for about five years before living in How Caple on a farm rearing chickens.

They then had a fruit farm in the village for many years until Captain Cross died in 1981, aged 61.

They had three children, Penelope, Noeleen and Mathew. Mrs Cross now has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mrs Bayly said: "Then my mother continued to run the farm by herself for nine years before selling it."

She converted the stables and cowsheds at the farm into a home where she has lived since.

Mrs Bayly added: "She has always been very community-minded and looked after the people not so well off in the village."

She loves dogs and horses, having always given rescue dogs a home, and successfully bred many prize-winning children's riding ponies.

She loves playing bridge, doing the crossword and is still an active churchwarden of Sollers Hope Church, and still drives herself everywhere.