HEXHAM centenarian Betty Gibson's story about the heroic father she never knew was told to the nation when she appeared on the Antiques Roadshow in the 1990s with his medals.

Betty, well known in the town for running a shoe shop on Argyle Terrace with her husband Tom, died on Friday, November 17 after appearing in the Courant that day to speak in the run-up to Armistice Day about the sacrifices made by soldiers, like her late husband Tom, who spent five years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

Born in Middlesbrough in 1917, Betty was just over a year old when her father’s vessel was torpedoed by a German submarine near Southampton in 1918.

Robert Coulson was scalded by steam in the engine room of the SS Luis , but received the Albert Medal for gallantry after ensuring he and a young seaman made it off the ship and into a lifeboat.

Both men died and Betty’s mother, Margaret, was later invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the medal from King George V – only 600 of them were ever issued.

So proud was Betty of the medal, and another Lloyd’s War Medal bestowed for bravery at sea, that she shared the story behind the family treasures during an episode of the Antiques Roadshow in Hexham in the 1990s.