TRIBUTES have been paid a woman from Brightlingsea who worked as an ambulance driver during the Blitz.

Katherine Louise Brownbill passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home on June 10, aged 104.

Kay was born in Plymouth, Devon, on March 5, 1918, and had the flare for fashion but could also muck out a goat shed with style - which she did, multiple times, while living with her husband Andrew at Waterton Hall in north Lincolnshire.

She worked from 1936 until she was 70 as a health worker, joining up as a nurse just before Second World War at the age of 18.

She was also an ambulance driver in the Blitz, and her family say she was just as brave facing the pain of age-related aches and was always delighted to know she looked at least a decade younger than her years.

After the war, Kay and Andrew lived in various spots across England, as well as spending nearly a dozen years in Canada.

Every home she made included a flourishing garden and her roses are blooming even now.

Her family included five daughters, 13 grandchildren and more than 12 great-grandchildren.

They said she was “smart and witty” right through to her 104th birthday.