World War Two RAF Bomber Command sergeant dies aged 99

Peggy Edwards visited RAF Waddington five years ago, where she recalled 'the scale of the losses of these young men'.

A woman who served in Bomber Command in the Second World War has died aged 99 - just weeks after celebrating VE day.

Peggy Edwards was a sergeant in RAF Bomber Command's operation room where bombing raids of Nazi Germany were planned.

She was part of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, which enlisted 180,000 women by 1943.

Peggy was described as a "matriarch" in her home village of St Florence, Pembrokeshire.

She was at the centre of the village's recent VE Day celebrations on 8 May, where she was driven around in a flag-decked car.

'A wonderful, charismatic lady'

Peggy's friend Carol Grant said: "Peggy was held in high regard as the matriarch of St Florence.

"She was a wonderful, charismatic lady who was so proud of her wartime service.

"Everybody loved and respected her, and she made so many friends.

"It's such a shame that she didn't make it to her 100th birthday, but we are hoping to have a celebration of her life on that day next March."

Peggy served as a sergeant at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire between 1942 and 1946.

On a nostalgic return to the airbase five years ago, she recalled the constant shadow that hung over life there.

"We would be having breakfast with a crew in the morning, and that night they may be dead or missing," she said.

"But we couldn't let ourselves go to pieces, we had to keep morale up.

"People just don't have a clue today of the scale of the losses of these young men, some of them no older than 22 or 23."

Peggy reluctantly retired aged 82, after running a bed and breakfast business in St Florence.

Her funeral will see a cortege make its way around the village for friends and neighbours to pay their final respects.