Doctor Lindsay Rea, who set up the day hospital at Savernake Hospital which Wiltshire NHS Trust controversially closed three years ago, has died at the age of 84.

Dr Rea was the professional name of Shirley Bishop who had lived at Chisbury Cottage at Little Bedwyn for almost 50 years.

She died peacefully on Sunday October 24 at the Cotswold Nursing Home near Burford.

A service of thanksgiving for her life takes place at St Michael’s Church in Little Bedwyn tomorrow, Friday November 12, at 11am.

Shirley Bishop as she was known to her many friends in around Chisbury and Little Bedwyn left strict instructions for her daughter Victoria on the way her funeral was to be conducted.

Victoria Bishop said: “She laid down precisely what she wanted at her funeral.

“She wanted a small family cremation, which took place last Thursday, and she said she wanted a jolly and joyous thanksgiving service at St Michael’s.”

Her instructions for “a jolly party, too” are being observed with friends invited back to Chisbury Cottage after the service.

She was born Elisabeth Shirley Lindsay Rea in London in 1926, the second of four children of a Harley Street eye specialist. Her only surviving sibling, Mary, who lives in the USA, has flown over for the thanksgiving service.

In her school days she played lacrosse and tennis and later took up golf.

She followed her father into medicine and graduated as a doctor in 1949, initially practising paediatrics in London where she met Euston Bishop.

They married at St James’s in Piccadilly in March 1958. Three years later their only child Victoria was born.

After a career break to bring up her daughter and taking on another daughter and a son when her favourite cousin died, Mrs Bishop returned to the medical profession under her maiden name and worked as a locum GP in Wiltshire.

She became a full time consultant geriatrician and ran a day hospital for the elderly in Stratton St Margaret.

In 1982 she set up the day hospital at Savernake and worked there as a full time consultant for the next five years and intermittently until the end of 1980s.

As she became increasingly disabled by the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, Mrs Bishop became a patient of the day hospital that she had helped establish.

Mrs Bishop was widowed 23 years ago and she is survived by her daughter and by one sister.