SPURS stalwart Barbara Wallace has died at the age of 91.

Mrs Wallace served as personal secretary to Bill Nicholson during his time as manager, working in Tottenham Hotspur’s office from 1956 until 1980 as a receptionist, telephonist and administrator.

Born in Witney on July 22, 1920, Barbara Clarke married Maurice Wallace, who worked in the aircraft industry, in June 1946.

She was widowed 10 years later, not long before joining the football club where she was the only full-time female member of staff at the time of the double success in 1961, supplying the blue and white ribbons attached to the trophy lifted at Wembley by Danny Blanchflower.

This followed family tradition which began in 1901 when her grandmother attached favours to Spurs’ trophy when they beat Sheffield United at Bolton’s Burnden Park.

Barbara was appointed the personal secretary of Nicholson while he was the manager and became a close family friend. She remained alert and continued to follow football – in particular Spurs – right up to her death on September 5.

Tottenham spokesman John Fennelly said: “She was a strong woman who literally ran the club.”