Meet the remarkable 101-year-old Sunderland veteran as she celebrates VE Day with her family

Mary Bruce Hanson Todd - known as Molly - sang Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again alongside her loved ones as she celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day on Friday, May 8.

Molly, who was born in Southwick, Sunderland, in 1919, will turn 101 on May 27 – but she still remembers her time in the Women’s Royal Air Force (WAF) like it was yesterday.

The great-grandmother was 22-years-old when she signed up to join the WAF after the department store where she worked, then known as Binns, was bombed.

Her then-boyfriend Billy Todd was in the RAF and the couple married in 1941 in the hopes of being posted together.

But fate had different ideas and Billy was posted overseas while she took up base at RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire.

She says she was “excited” to join up and throughout her service held the title of Leading Aircraft Woman and became a tailor and a physical training instructor.

However, she describes a harrowing six months after Billy’s ship was attacked by a torpedo on its way to the Middle East.

After hearing nothing for six months she assumed her husband was missing, but miraculously he survived after floating on a raft for four days.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the service, especially once I got word that Billy had survived the torpedo attack on the ship,” said Molly.

After the war the couple moved back to Sunderland and ran butchers shops on Hendon and Villette Road – where Billy became famous for ‘Toddy’s sausages’ – and later in Cleadon.

They retired in 1982 and moved to Harrogate to be closer to family before Billy sadly died just eight years later.

Molly, who now shares a home with her daughter and son-in-law says Wearside is still where her heart lies.

“I’ve been spoiled, me and Billy were lucky to have a long and happy life together,” she added.

“I’ve always been very proud of my service during the war.”

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