The wartime memories of an Ilkley woman are forming a major part of a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Edith Kup was an intelligence officer with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the Battle of Britain, plotting the movements of aircraft across the English Channel.

And it was in this role that she discovered that her fiancé, fighter pilot Dennis Wissler, had died as he helped protect Britain from the Nazis and enemy invasion.

Now, 70 years on, Mrs Kup has been interviewed for the exhibition at the museum in London, while a diary she kept at the time describing pilots returning from battle and the devastating physical and mental effects of the war is on display too.

The interview and diary, entitled ‘Memoirs of a Wartime WAAF’, form part of the Explore History 1940 exhibition chronicling stories from the time and the events that helped determine the outcome of the Second World War.

The events covered include Winston Churchill’s rise to power, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the occupation of the Channel Islands and the Blitz.

Mrs Kup’s tale of wartime love and heartbreak is one of the most poignant stories at the museum.

After training in Yeadon, she was based in Essex when she met Mr Wissler and the pair embarked on an intense three-month romance.

They were due to be married in 1941, but tragedy struck in November 1940 as Mrs Kup was on duty and realised her fiance had been killed.

“I heard somebody say ‘There’s blue four going down’ and there was no sign of anything else and suddenly I thought ‘Oh my God, I know who it is’,” Mrs Kup said for the exhibition.

Mrs Kup, 91, eventually married a doctor and had two children.

Her memories have previously been recalled in a BBC documentary a decade ago, but Mrs Kup now prefers to stay out of the limelight.