Former Chippenham teacher Winefride Channon died on Saturday, aged 91.

Mrs Channon died at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, after a long illness.

At the age of 18 the then Miss Healey from Staffordshire joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). It was while serving that she met William (Bill) Channon, who had been captured at Arnhem but managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp.

They married in 1947 and spent their early married life in Berlin before returning to Mr Channon’s home county of Wiltshire, where they lived at the Wiltshire Regiment HQ in Devizes.

In the 1950s they moved to Chippenham, where Mrs Channon would live for the next 60 years and raise their six children.

Her husband died after a 31-year marriage and Mrs Channon studied for an Open University degree and later undertook postgraduate study at Plater College, Oxford.

She worked as a teacher at Middlefield Special School in Chippenham and was a passionate advocate of university, ensuring all her children went on to further education.

Mrs Channon was known locally for her work with the Townswomen’s Guild and was a parishioner at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Chippenham, for almost 60 years.

On her retirement she travelled widely, visiting Australia, India, China, South Africa and Russia.

Her son, Henry, said: “She was never happier than sitting with her head in a book and was solving the cryptic crossword puzzle with lightning speed until her final days. She will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege to know and love Granny Channy.”