A Nelson woman has marked International Women’s Day be celebrating her 100th birthday.
The youngest of eight children, Doreen Jewell was born in Sunderland in 1919 – during the first year of women’s suffrage.
Leaving school aged 12, because the family needed her to work, she worked as an apprentice to a French Polisher and then Vaux Brewery in Sunderland.
At the beginning of the Second World War, aged 20, she was drafted to work in the munitions factories in Birmingham. While there she met Ken Jewell, and after the war had ended went back to the Rhondda valley with him where they were married.
She had one son, Anthony, and later two grandchildren, Rhianedd and Delyth. She has lived in Wales for over 70 years.
Granddaughter Delyth, who is the Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South Wales East, said: “It’s wonderful that she’s celebrating International Women’s Day on her 100th birthday and remarkable to think how much life will have changed for women in her lifetime.
“We are all delighted that she has seen this milestone, and have been looking forward to celebrating it with her.”
