VIOLA White, one of the outstanding Wiltshire tennis players of the post-war era, has died at the age of 89.

Viola played at Wimbledon from 1949 to 1961, competing in the singles every year, and most years also in the women's doubles and mixed doubles.

In 1953 she reached the doubles quarter-finals with Mary Eyre from Gloucestershire; in the same year she captained the England team against Wales.

As a county player, she had a big part in lifting Wiltshire into Group One at County Week in 1952. She won the singles at Winchester six times in all.

Viola was born in Wiltshire and spent much of her life in the village of Zeals, near Warminster, where the family had a farm. She trained as a nurse at Winchester Hospital during the war, but returned to Zeals after the war and began what was to be a very active sporting career.

She played hockey for Wiltshire and the West, and toured South Africa with the England team. Geoffrey Owen, president of the Wiltshire LTA, said: "Viola White made an immense contribution to Wiltshire tennis, and all who knew her will remember her with the greatest affection."