WIDOW Frances Cripps - believed to be Oxford's oldest citizen - has died peacefully at a rest home in Oxford at the grand old age of 106.

Mrs Cripps, who liked a tipple of three gins a day, passed away at the Woodlands rest home in Woodstock Road on Monday.

She was born in Devon but spent most of her life in north Oxford. She was sent seven telegrams from the Queen, which she kept in a drawer.

After the First World War she and her husband Leonard opened a gent's outfitters in St Aldate's. After he died in 1944 she became involved with voluntary work for the deaf.

The funeral is being held at Wolvercote Cemetery Chapel, Oxford, at noon next Thursday.

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