FRIENDS and neighbours of Devizes grandmother Joan Appleton have spoken of their shock at her apparent suicide.

Mrs Appleton's body was recovered from the Kennet and Avon Canal at Foxhangers Lock on June 4, just a day after she went missing.

The divorced grandmother, a former nurse at Devizes Hospital, was due to celebrate her 82nd birthday on the day her body was found.

Mrs Appleton lived in a bungalow at Clock Tower Lodge at Drews Park, the housing development on part of the former Roundway Hospital site.

Some of the neighbours had organised a party for her on June 3, but she failed to turn up.

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Salisbury last Friday.

Wiltshire Coroner David Masters heard that Mrs Appleton had suffered from a depressive illness.

He was told that the police were satisfied there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.

Mrs Appleton was an active member of the Drews Park Village Association and a keen member of the village theatre group. Her death has rocked the close-knit community.

She went for walks every day and attended a weekly fitness class for elderly people at the Wyvern Club in Church Walk.

John Stevens, a neighbour of Mrs Appleton's and former chairman of Drews Park Village Association, said: "What has happened has really shaken us. Joan was a very popular lady, respected and got on very well with people.

"She got involved with activities, such as parties, that the residents' association organised.

"She was very entertaining and was a lady of great personality. You could have lively debates and discussions with her.

"She was very active. She walked around here every day and would wash her car once or twice a week."

Neighbour Gwen Townsend said: "I was absolutely flabbergasted when I heard of her death. My immediate reaction was she wasn't the suicide type. She was an active lady. She drove her car and I often saw her out walking. If she was ill, I didn't know it."

Another neighbour, Christine O'Sullivan, said: "We are all very shocked. The only comfort we have now is that she's at peace.

"Joan was the life and soul of the party and was always smiling. She was a feisty lady and spoke her mind.

"She was very independent and she often used to walk around Drews Park and went up to Savernake Forest."

Some neighbours knew that Mrs Appleton was ill, but she gave no outward sign that she was depressed.

She was due to attend a meeting of the U3A last Friday for the inaugural meeting of a jazz appreciation group, run by Pauline St John Osland.

Mrs St John Osland, of Downlands Road, said: "When we had the meeting of the jazz appreciation group I was thinking about the empty chair that was for Joan.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard of her death. She was such a live wire. She was forthright but you couldn't be annoyed with her."

Mrs Appleton was also a member of the Devizes Recorded Music Society and Mrs St John Osland saw her at the society's AGM a week before her death.

She said: "She seemed perfectly all right the last time I saw her. She said she was waiting for a cataract operation and she said once she had that she would be able to see better."

Mrs Appleton had lived at Drews Park for three years and before that had lived in Marlborough for almost 20 years.

Originally from London, she and her former husband, Ronald, moved to Devizes in the 1950s. They were divorced in 1973.

She also worked at Coombe End House in Marlborough, a residential care home for the elderly, and in the 1980s she bought and ran Sunmar House in Marlborough, a care home for the elderly. When she sold it as a going concern, it was renamed Marlborough Lodge. Mrs Appleton is survived by two sons, Barney, a police officer based at Corsham traffic department, and Timothy, and her grandchildren.

Mrs Appleton's funeral service was held on Wednesday June 11 at West Wiltshire Crematorium, Semington.