Notes for: Gwenneth E Bull
From The Hereford Times 16 Sep 2013:
A LEOMINSTER woman who narrowly missed being hit by a bomb during the Second World War has celebrated turning 100 this month.
Centenarian Gwenneth Wilcox started life at Downend in Bristol and went to Kingswood Grammar School.
There she was in the same class as Sir Bernard Lovell who is famous for setting up the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire.
Gwenneth’s son, Anthony Wilcox, said: "He was unbeatable in maths and physics, but mum beat him in English and English literature. My mother was a very well read and knowledgeable person, who up to a few years ago took a great interest in current affairs and politics."
Gwenneth began work at the Inland Revenue in 1931 and met her future husband Bernard while working in its Bath office.
They married in April 1941 but with the outbreak of war, Bernard joined the RAF as a pilot.
It was while he was on leave that he joined Gwenneth and her mother on April 25, 1942, and on that day the three of them narrowly avoided being hit during a large bombing raid.
Gwenneth’s mother had ordered everyone under the dining room table seconds before a 250kg bomb hit the house, causing it to collapse over them.
Homeless, Gwenneth and her husband moved to join relatives in Bristol with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a £5 note they found in the rubble.
After the war, they moved from Bristol to Cambridge and then to Burnham-on-Sea, where they eventually retired.
Bernard died in 1980.
Needing constant care, Gwenneth moved to Waverley House in June 2012, where she is close to her children and grandchildren who live in Dilwyn and Cobnash.
Gwenneth’s big day was spent with family, residents and staff at the care home, where she was played a medley of her favourite songs on hand bells and blew out the candles on her cake