A SOUTHAMPTON woman who built Spitfires during the war is about to turn 100.

Originally from Shirley, Betty Jacob will reach the milestone on October 3.

The 99-year-old lives surrounded by photos from her life and of her great-grandchildren.

She told the Echo she has "no clue" how she's lived this long. 

Betty has lived in Southampton her whole life. 

She left school at the age of 14 working several odd jobs until the beginning of the Second World War.

When the conflict started Betty worked in a war office where she said every day was "eventful". 

She said: "It was quite a time.

"You would hear Americans and there were so many secrets I wasn't able to talk about as I worked on invasion maps.

"There were three of us and we were known as the terrible trio. We were all in the same department and if there was trouble it was because we were bored teenagers." 

Betty later worked in an aircraft factory in Woolston creating what she called "odd bits and bobs for Spitfires". 

She remembers hiding in a bomb shelter during the Blitz and seeing houses being destroyed only a few metres away from her home in Bitterne.

She later married her first boyfriend, Glenn Parker, after he returned from the Army.

The pair went on to have a son, Ian, before Glenn passed away in his 40s due to a heart attack. 

Betty later worked at Magnum, a famous Southampton bar and nightclub in the late 1950s and 60s, before marrying her second husband Frank Jacob.

She now lives in Portswood and says she is "very lucky to be alive".

She said: "I don't know if it's because the Lord thinks I've been very good or very bad that I have lived this long.

"My son passed away from a heart attack late last year so it's just me and my sibling's children and my grandchildren."

"I really don't know how I've done it. Living to my 100th birthday is just as much as a surprise to me as anyone else."

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