A WOMAN who sent hand-written cards to the families of fallen war heroes has died aged 91.

Mary Gibson, of Cedar Court, Cowley, died at the John Radcliffe Hospital on Remembrance Day, Friday, November 11, after a long illness.

Mrs Gibson, nee Weekes, was part of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, WAAF, throughout the Second World War, but became involved in the Bomber Command Association in her seventies. Born in East Oxford, she enlisted in the WAAF in 1939 and was based mostly at Magdalen College in Oxford, where she helped to trace wrecked aircraft.

After the war, she lived at the family home in Magdalen Road, until she met Norman Gibson, a pressed steel worker.

The couple married in 1948, and their only child, David, was born in June 1950.

He said: “We lived in a two-up two-down with an outside loo and tin bath hanging on the wall, but we were happy.”

After being demobbed, Mrs Gibson worked as a bursar’s secretary at Lincoln College, then as a doctor’s secretary until she was 72.

Following her husband’s death, her son encouraged Mrs Gibson to go on cruises and Venice became a second home.

About 15 years ago, she started up a Thames Valley branch of the Bomber Command Association.

She designed a card which she sent to the next of kin whenever a former member of Bomber Command died.

She was awarded an MBE for her work with the group in 2006.

Mr Gibson said: “It was a tremendously proud moment, but she said: ‘What’s that for? I just did my duty’.

“She loved going to meet the Queen, but it was surreal.”

Mrs Gibson moved next door to her son in Cedar Court in 2000. She died of pneumonia after four months in hospital.

A private funeral was held this week.