OIL painter Diana Sylvester died on March 19 at Hungerford House, Corsham, aged 85.

Born in Bath, she studied at Bath High School and during wartime service she drove lorries – although she never took a driving test – and inflated balloons which would float across the channel and disrupt German signals.

She married Robin Sylvester in Bath in 1947, and the couple eventually settled in South Wraxall, where they spent 44 years.

While a full-time mother to Christopher, now 61, Gillian, 58, David, 54 and Simon, 50, she took evening classes in oil painting. Her talent grew and she worked part-time for Wiltshire County Council as a lecturer, teaching at the Methuen Centre in Corsham.

Her works are displayed in public and private galleries here and abroad and she carried on painting until she fell ill about a month ago.

She had only recently moved from her last home in Bradford on Avon to Hungerford House. She spent two weeks in the Royal United Hospital in Bath for treatment for a lung infection before returning to the residential home.

Her funeral will be held on Monday at 1.45pm at West Wiltshire Crematorium, Semington. Family flowers only but donations can be made to the Alzheimers Society c/o funeral directors CS Bowyer in Bradford on Avon.