Former Airedale dinner lady Florence is 100 years old

Until very recently, Florence lived an independent life and puts her good health down to a lifetime of healthy, home-cooked food.

Her daughter Pamela said: “Mam has always been there for us. She has always put her family first and is a caring and loving person.”

Florence was born in Pontefract in 1921 to Agnes and John Richard Harvey, the eldest of five children.

It was a happy childhood but a hard one as her father was a miner who took part in the general strike of 1926.

Florence worked at one of the Pontefract liquorice works before and after World War Two and spent the war years at the Thorpe Arch ammunition depot where she drove a forklift truck.

She married Albert, her husband of 54 years in August 1946, and the couple had five children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Albert died suddenly in 2000, aged 76.

Florence worked as a dinner lady at a number of schools including Oyster Park, Airedale High and Airedale Juniors from where she retired aged 62.

Pamela said: “She made lifelong friends working at the school and she and my dad used to go with them to Benidorm every year from 1973 to 1998.”

For many years Florence also organised coffee mornings to raise money for cystic fibrosis as her eldest granddaughter Rebecca died of the condition in 2009 aged just 27.

Since having a fall a few weeks ago Florence has been cared for at Cymar House in Castleford where members of her family came together for a birthday celebration attended by Castleford Tigers player Liam Watts. The family said Florence was thrilled and delighted to receive a birthday card from the queen and that Liam had come to visit her.