Family lover Kathleen Paget, who lived an independent life until just two weeks before her death, has died aged 102.

Mrs Paget, who was born in Penzance, came to Bromham as a young woman to work as a lady’s maid for Captain and Mrs Ivy Brassey at Battle House.

She met her husband George, who was a widower, when he was the driver of an open-top bus that went from the village to Devizes.

The couple married in Norfolk in 1935 and Mrs Paget became step-mother to George’s young daughter Joyce. The couple set up house in Hawk Street, Bromham and Mrs Paget lived in the same house for 70 years.

She had two children Ursula and Anthony, now deceased, six grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren. Mr Paget died in 1988.

For 15 years in the 1960s and 1970s Mrs Paget worked as an auxiliary nurse doing the night shift at Devizes District Hospital.

She retired at the age of 65 doing a similar job at Southfields nursing home.

Her daughter Ursula Dolman, who lives in Horton, said: “My mother adored children and she looked after lots of cousins as well as her own.

“The family was the most important thing to her. She also never missed Prime Minister’s Question Time on TV and would get quite cross if someone rang and interrupted the programme. She was also a big fan of Casualty and Holby City.

“She was very alert until just a couple of weeks before she died and then she moved in with us. She just died of old age in the end.”

For the last years of her life she moved from Bromham to live at Slade House in Victoria Road, Devizes.

Her funeral was held at St Nicholas Church, Bromham, yesterday followed by a burial in the village cemetery. Her grave is next to that of her husband.

The family chose a picture taken by the Gazette for Mrs Paget’s 100th birthday to go on the front of the order of service.