The daughter of a naval officer, Roma Regina May Lambert was born in Plymouth in 1918, where she grew up.

She met her future husband Bernard in his father’s pub, and the two eloped to Scotland to marry in 1949.

After working in a munitions factory during the Second World War she embarked on a career with her husband in the Ministry of Defence, and the two of them were posted all over the UK.

Their first son Steven was born in Carlisle, before the family was posted to Corsham in the 1960s, where they remained and had another son, John. They went on to have two grandchildren, Martyn, 23 and Charlotte, 21.

After growing up on the coast she always loved the sea, joking she couldn’t remember a time before she could swim. She was also an avid reader, and a particular fan of the novels of Nora Roberts, Dick Francis and Madeleine Brent.

Her husband, who died before her, was a keen organist, and Roma would regularly accompany him to the former Dowty Social Club in Atworth, where she loved to dance. In later years she was a regular fixture at the Brookside Home Social Club in Melksham, which she attended every Friday.

In 1996 she moved in with her daughter-in-law Barbara, and her final years were spent at Sutton Veny House Nursing Home.

She was very easy going and had a wicked sense of humour. Despite becoming frail towards the end of her life laughter could always be heard coming from her room.

She died on December 3, and her funeral will take place on December 10, at West Wiltshire Crematorium, Semington.

Donations in her memory can be made to Sutton Veny House Amenity Fund, care of DJ Bewley Funeral Directors, Melksham.