TRIBUTES have been paid to a well-known Barrow woman who has died aged 93.

Betty Gregson passed away at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, on November 19, aged 93. During her life she was part of a well-known dynasty at the pre-world-war Barrow Post Office.

During World War II, Betty served in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRENS), and before that was a telephonist, with the job of communicating with the nearby cities over bombers on their way to Barrow and to warn of a potential air raid.

Her connections to South Cumbria are through her ancestry in the Stephens family which ran into Millom and Haverigg. Her late husband, Rex, was a Barrow musician who became big news on BBC Radio Cumbria for his series "A Cheerful Little Earful" in the years before and after the war.

Her son, Keith Gregson, 67, a former musician, writer and historian, now living in Sunderland, said: "She was a great mum and a very cheerful person.

"She was a very keen walker and artist, she did in fact win a school award when she was younger for her artwork!

"She was the sort of person who was so easy to get along with and the one that people came to for any help or advice."