A FORMER Newport brewery worker turned wartime factory girl is to celebrate her 100th birthday next week after her party was delayed during lockdown.
Irene Welsher was born Irene Hale in Swansea on August 5, 1921.
She later moved to Newport - as her father Harry worked in the docks - and lived on Maesglas Road.
At the breakout of the Second World War in 1939, Ms Welsher was working in a brewery in Newport but was soon turning her attention to bombs rather than beers.
She worked in a munitions factory putting soft metal bands onto explosive shells.
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After the war, Ms Welsher married Fred Welsher on June 29, 1946 at St Paul's Church in Newport.
The pair honeymooned in Blackpool.
They remained living on Maesglas Road until moving onto the then newly-built Gaer estate in 1953 and had their four children - Lynda, Angela, Sylvia and Leslie.
Ms Welsher later worked in the Robin Hood Pub.
Her delayed 100th birthday celebrations will take place at Claremont Court Nursing Home in Malpas, Newport on Wednesday, October 6 after having been delayed during the coronavirus lockdown.
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