Grantham woman who served returning Dunkirk soldiers sandwiches and tea celebrates 100th birthday surrounded by family

A woman who made tea and sandwiches for the soldiers coming back from Dunkirk has turned 100.

Born on December 1, 1923, Nancy Barker (nee Parker) has lived in Grantham all of her life.

She is the eldest of three children of Frank and Ellen Parker, of 100 Springfield Road, where Nancy lived for the first 50 years of her life.

Upon leaving school, Nancy went into service, but upon the outbreak of the Second World War, she returned to Grantham.

Nancy worked at Grantham Station Canteen; where she remembers preparing gallons of tea and hundreds of sandwiches for the troop trains - in particular the trains bringing the men back from Dunkirk.

She was also a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service, where she learnt to drive.

After this, Nancy worked for many years at Aveling & Barfords, making many friends and eventually meeting and marrying her husband Mike Barker, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

They lived first in Barrowby, before moving to Great Gonerby.

Nancy has always loved travel, joining one of the first coach tours to Switzerland after the war.

She saved each year for new trips abroad - her favourite being Italy.

Nancy continued to travel with Mike, to visit her nephew, who lives in France, until she was 89, when she decided she had had enough of foreign travel.

She is now still in Grantham and the eldest resident in Birchwood Retirement Home in Dudley Road, where her family say she is “extremely well cared for, by all the staff”.

Nancy celebrated her birthday today (Friday) with a small gathering of friends and family.