A DAY of festivities in Kendal this weekend will celebrate the work the army and emergency services do.

Armed Forces and Blue Light Services Tribute Day, taking place on Sunday (June 23), is a Kendal Business Improvement District (BID) project.

There will be a variety of things to see and do at the event, including vintage military vehicles, live music on New Road, and inflatables for the children.

Taking part in the day will be Elizabeth Jones, 96, an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War.

Mrs Jones, who now lives in Staveley, joined the RAF in March 1941 at the age of 17, having become fed-up with her job making fuselages.

She said: “She [my mother] locked all the doors and took the keys, but we lived in a bungalow and at about 1 o’clock in the morning I got out the window.”

Mrs Jones spent her first week in Gloucester before moving to Morecambe to do her six weeks of training. She was later posted to RAF Hednesford, working mostly on Spitfires and Wellington Bombers until her demobilisation in October 1945.

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She added that she wasn’t aware of any other female mechanics where she worked.

“I used to go up sometimes with the pilot when there was a difficult job, or a job I wasn’t sure of - sometimes he would let me go up with him so he could explain something to me,” she said.

“He did let me hold the controls on the one occasion but that was unofficial.”

She met her husband David in the RAF, where he made and repaired horsa gliders. They had a happy life together until his death in 1999.

Sunday’s event will not be the first time the spotlight has been on the armed forces in Kendal - a replica spitfire went on display in August of last year to celebrate 100 years of the RAF.

If you wish to attend Armed Forces and Blue Light Services Tribute Day, head for Kendal town centre where there will be further information.