Harrogate war veteran, aged 101, to become first to receive Freedom of the Town

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A Harrogate war veteran is set to become the first person to receive Freedom of the Town.

Harrogate Town Council will grant the honour to Sheila Pantin in recognition of her extraordinary wartime service.

Mrs Pantin, who is 101, has lived in Harrogate since the 1970s after moving to the town to work at the Army Foundation College.

She joined the army aged just 17 and trained as an ambulance and staff car driver with the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army, rising to the rank of sergeant.

After being posted abroad in autumn 1944, she was detailed to lead a convoy of about 10 three-tonne Bedford lorries across France and Belgium entering into Nazi Germany from Holland.

In April 1945, Mrs Pantin became one of the first British service women to enter Bergen-Belsen, a German concentration camp, after its liberation.

After the war, she rose to the rank of sergeant and lived in places across the world such as Hong Kong, Belize and Northern Ireland. She left to have her daughter Helen in 1950, and later worked as a PE teacher before returning to the Army.

Mrs Pantin finished her career at the army college in Harrogate, and has remained in the town ever since.

A motion to be put before councillors says:

Cllr Paula Stott will propose the motion to confer the Freedom of the Town upon Ms Pantin at a meeting at Harrogate Civic Centre on October 21.

Mayor of Harrogate, Cllr Chris Aldred, will second the motion.