Manette Baillie the oldest Brit to skydive, leaping from a plane for her 102nd birthday

With her 102nd birthday on the horizon, fearless Brit Manette Baillie leapt at the chance to celebrate.

So what better way than to jump 7000ft from a plane, making her the UK’s oldest skydiver?

A former member Women’s Royal Naval Service during World War II, known as a Wren, marked 100 by driving a Ferrari at 210kmh around Silverstone.

“I really don’t do fear, it’s no good,” she had previously told BBC Radio 4.

After yesterday’s jump over Beccles, Suffolk, she said: “I thought ‘I’ve gone a bit too far this time’ but I wasn’t too nervous. I kept dropping and spinning. When the cord was pulled, it was peace and quiet floating, a wonderful sensation.”

“It was a bit scary.

“I must admit I shut my eyes very firmly.

“I just want other people who are getting towards 80 and 90 not to give up anything. Just keep going.

“I’ve been so lucky to be fit and well that I’ve got to do something with it, that’s really the back of it,” she told the BBC.

“I can’t just waste it, other people are crippled with arthritis and I’m not.”

Prince William sent a letter wishing the mother-of-one luck for her derring-do in aid of charities including East Anglian Air Ambulance.

The air ambulance saved her son’s life on the Isle of Wight after a diving accident in 1969, according to the BBC.

She said this would be her last daredevil fundraiser.

“I shall be taking up knitting,” she said

Mrs Baillie’s first husband, Derek Bowden, was a paratrooper who was dropped into Arnhem in 1944 and lived to his 90s.

The former Wren, who joined up in 1941, met her second husband, Navy man Adam ‘Reid’ Baillie, while posted to Egypt. He died 30 years ago and their son died aged 70.

Britain’s previous oldest parachutist was Verdun Hayes, who jumped in 2017 at 101 and 38 days. The world record holder is Texan Alfred Blaschke, aged 106.