Southwick grandmother Lydia Barstow, who was enslaved by the Germans during the Second World War, died at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon on January 2, aged 89.

Mrs Barstow was born in the Ukraine, on March 15, 1925 and lived in Dnepropetrovsk with her family, including her four brothers, until she was captured aged 16 by German soldiers.

She was taken as slave labour to Munich, where she worked as a cook until she was rescued at the end of the war by an officer in the Irish Guards, William James Barstow.

They fell in love and married, and set up home in England in Wimbledon Park, going on to have a son, Ian, and one grandchild.

The family moved to Southwick in 1969, where Mrs Barstow started work in the finance department at County Hall in Trowbridge. According to her son, her photographic memory had helped her learn English with ease and meant she was great with numbers.

She did not return to the Ukraine until after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

Only one of her brothers was still alive when she visited between 1990-91.

After her husband died in 1981, Mrs Barstow continued working for the council until her retirement around 1993, although she only worked part-time after turning 60.

Her main hobby was knitting, and she enjoyed using her mathematical skills in her spare time as well.

Her son Ian said: “She was a lovely woman who was very trusting, which was in some ways quite remarkable considering she went through so much.

“Everywhere she went people liked her and she would always put others first before herself.

“She was just a kind person and thought the best of everyone – that was just how she was.

“She led a remarkable life and it was an incredible story that she met my father while he was rescuing people from one of the slave camps with a Canadian officer. It was love at first sight.”

A date for Mrs Barstow’s funeral has yet to be set.