One of Marlborough’s great characters, shopkeeper Alex Block, who drove a James Bond-style Aston Martin DB6 well into her nineties, has died in a nursing home at the age of 99.

Mrs Block was given the Christian name Olivia but was always known as Alex.

She died on June 29 in a nursing home at Figheldean and her funeral takes place in All Saints Church, Froxfield, on Tuesday at 11.30pm. She will be buried with her war-hero husband Ralph, who died in 1985.

There will be no flowers but donations instead for the Blue Cross, care of funeral directors Thomas Free and Sons, The Parade, Marlborough.

Mr Block was awarded the George Cross after risking his life to rescue a woman from a collapsed building in London during the Second World War. Mrs Block was also in London during the war and drove a Red Cross Ambulance.

After the war the couple moved to Great Bedwyn where Mrs Block’s mother, a Mrs Killick, lived. They later lived in the Old Schoolhouse in Froxfield for many years.

They opened the Vine Boutique in Marlborough High Street and also ran a cafe, later diversifying into selling hand-made chocolates.

After Mr Block died, his widow moved her shop into Hughenden Yard arcade and continued to run it until she was in her eighties.

She also moved to live in Pipers Piece in Marlborough.

Mrs Block was a flamboyant character who dressed in flip flops and flowing ankle-length skirts.

She was known best of all for her green four-litre Aston Martin.

She and her husband had a holiday home in the Welsh mountains and, after closing her shop on a Saturday afternoon, she thought nothing of getting behind the wheel of her beloved Aston Martin and driving through all weathers through narrow and twisting mountain passes to her holiday cottage.

One of her friends said: “She drove like a maniac. She was hardly tall enough to see over the wheel but she had no problem reaching the accelerator pedal. She took me for a drive once and I said never again.”