HERO: 99-year-old veteran, Louise Jennings

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Brave WWII hero Louise Jennings was a 26-year-old when she fought in the Second World War as Robert Jennings. The then-male soldier collapsed in exhaustion against a massive boulder before having to row out to a British destroyer warship waiting to pick up the troops. The Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk brought back memories for the veteran who could still remember the chaos of the beach evacuation in France.

Louise's funeral will be held at Beauchief Abbey at 11am on Friday, January 4. Speaking in 2017, she said: "When we got to France we were lined up and started to walk inland. "But when we got a few miles from the sea, it was 'halt-turn about and march back'. We had to get back to Dunkirk. "I was extremely tired and extremely hungry. God knows what we were doing there.

Robert, back right, with brother John, father Arthur and mother Ellen at their home in Sheffield

"There was no use being scared. I was very lucky - I could have been involved in all sorts of things, but I wasn't." Louise, originally from Heeley, South Yorks., lived as a man for the first 70 years of her life, and was happily married to wartime sweetheart Edith for more than four decades. But Robert knew something wasn't quite right and after Edith sadly died of cancer in 1989, he decided to act on feelings he had kept secret for years. Louise said: "I have always regarded women as superior. As a man I considered myself inferior to women.

The WWII hero lived her last 20 years as a woman

Louise Jennings, known as Robert, back row, centre, with the Durham Light Infrantry 10th Battalion