'Hooray' Hilda Kemp was born in 1922 and worked in a fish-and-chip shop in South London in the 1950s and 60s. Before she died (in her 80s) she told her life story to her granddaughter, the journalist and author Cathryn Kemp. She was a larger-than-life character who, despite her difficult life, was known for her indomitable good humour and her tough spirit throughout her hardships.