A WOMAN awarded the British Empire Medal for her work with the Red Cross celebrated her 100th birthday.

Gwen Hale, of The Crescent, in West Wickham, Bromley, worked for the Red Cross and helped casualties in the evacuation from Dunkirk.

Family and friends celebrated her centenary at St Mark's Church Hall, in Westmoreland Road, Bromley.

Gwen and twin sister Ileene, who died in 1998, were born in 1902 in Tavistock Square, London. Gwen has lived in the borough since she was six.

Gwen joined the Red Cross in 1927 and was sent to Shorncliffe Military Hospital in Folkestone when it became a casualty clear-ing hospital during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

She was also sent to Leeds Castle where she nursed German prisoners of war as well as British troops, was made Comman-dant of the Red Cross unit at Beckenham (Kent 86) in 1948 and be-came a nurse at Bromley Hospital in 1969.

After their parents died, Gwen and Ileene took over the role of grandparents to their nephews' children and became great grandparents to their nephews' grandchildren.

Not wishing to retire totally from nursing, at 60 she got in-volved with a holiday relief system for five years.