A CWMBRAN woman who spent World War Two checking aeroplane parts at the Girlings factory, before teaching people to drive in the town, is celebrating her 100th birthday today, Friday.
Constance King, who is known as Connie, was born in 1922 at Gelli Rhewa farm in Garndiffaith.
One of the highlights of her long and interesting life was meeting the Duchess of Cornwall in 2015 at the 70th anniversary of VJ Day in London.
She was there to represent her husband Mervyn, a Burma Star veteran, and marched from Horseguards Parade to Westminster Abbey with her daughter Wendy.
Gelli Rhewa farm was owned by her grandfather Thomas Williams, who was the main farmer.
Mrs King has fond memories of getting up before school with "Grancha", to check the farm’s sheep up on the hillside, and when returning home she would have a cup of hot cider before going to school.
Her father was Ivor Jayne, an overhead linesman and her mother, Blanche, looked after dairy cows at the farm.
Mrs King's first school was Penygarn School. However, her father had to look for work which took him around the country and this meant she went on to attend 16 different schools.
When she was 14 Mrs King reluctantly had to leave County Grammar School, Pontypool, to take care of her brother Kenneth, then aged two, due to her mother's sudden death.
During World War Two she worked in the Girling factory in Cwmbran in the quality control department checking aeroplane parts and she remembers taking in two evacuees: Madge from London and Isobel from Dover.
Mrs King taught herself to knit with two twigs from a lilac bush from the farm garden and a ball of string. Later taught herself to crotchet.
She knitted and crocheted many jackets, bonnets and booties for the children in the family and she recently finished a bedspread to go over her bed in lilac - her favourite colour. Mrs King is also a very good seamstress.
She is an animal lover and enjoys feeding wild birds and hedgehogs in her garden.
She also used to show her Staffordshire Bull terriers and had most success with a red coloured bitch called 'Meg' who won best puppy bitch and best overall puppy at the western championship show at Yate, Bristol in September 1988. This qualified her for Crufts in 1990.
Mrs King married Mervyn King on April 5, 1941, at St Michael & All Angels Church, Llantarnam.
Connie and Mervyn King, pictured around 1939
Mr King was a Burma star veteran and served with the Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm. He served on HMS Khedive as a artificer during the war.
After the war he worked in Panteg Steel works and ICI Fibres, Pontypool as an instrument technician/electrician.
Mervyn was also a driving instructor and owned his own driving school ‘Eastern Valley Driving School of Motoring’ and his wife also instructed pupils.
The couple had four children: Viviene Edwards, 80, Jeanette Ellam, 72, and twins Wendy Walton and Peter King, 68. They all still live in Cwmbran.
Mrs King also has 11 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren
Mrs King said her secret to a long life was to always sleep well. She has never smoked.
She will be spending her special birthday at home with her family.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here