A woman who was the front of house for West Wiltshire District Council for 20 years died on October 1, aged 84.

Mrs Pauline Lottie Wordley moved from receptionist at Unigate in Bythesea Road, Trowbrdge, to the District Council when it was first established in 1973 and remained there until she retired some 20 years later.

She was the first point of contact for most people entering the council offices, manning the switchboard and the reception desk. Her  unsupressable sense of fun always won through: when asked to run a skeleton crew to man reception over a Christmas period she did just that, arriving for work in a skeleton costume.

Mrs Wordley was born in Trowbridge the second child of Monty and Winifred Smart, and moved early in her life to North Bradley where she grew up and lived until she married in 1953. She was the second in a family of eight with five sisters and two brothers.

When she left school she joined the Women’s Royal Army Corps and served in the UK and Germany, rising to the rank of sergeant. She returned to North Bradley in 1951 and found work with a variety of employers in Trowbridge, most of whom have long since disappeared. She worked as an usher in the old Gaumont cinema, as a counter assistant in Fear Hills and in Woolworths.

She was well known in the Trowbridge area and will be remembered by many as a vibrant and vivacious woman, winning two of the famous Butlin’s Glamorous Granny competitions. She married Denis Wordley in 1987 and they shared many happy years of exploring this country and Europe, enjoying different cultures and cuisines and making friends wherever they went.

Mrs Wordley died peacefully in her sleep at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, following a brief illness. She had spent the last four years in the Avon Park Nursing Home at Winsley She leaves her husband, Denis, sons Paul and Dean, daughters-in-law Sheila and Jane, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Her funeral service took place at St Nicholas’ Church, North Bradley, on Wednesday. Donations in her memory can be made to the Alzheimer’s Society.