Nan Winton death: BBC's first female newsreader dies aged 93

She first started reading Sunday bulletins in 1960

Nan Winton, the first female newsreader at the BBC, has died (Rex Features)

Nan Winton, the first woman to read national news on BBC television, has died. She was aged 93.

The broadcaster, whose full name was Nancy Wigginton, was reportedly admitted to Dorchester County Hospital on 8 May after a fall at her home in Bridport, Dorset.

The Bournemouth Echo reports that Winton's condition worsened and she died on 11 May.

Coroner's officer Ken McEwan conducted an inquest into her death and said Winton had "become frail and had been falling frequently". The cause of death was congestive heart failure, hypertension and frailty of old age.

Winton worked as a continuity announcer on the BBC between 1958 and 1961. During that time, in 1960, she also began reading weekend bulletins on Sunday evening.

After viewers reportedly thought that a woman reading the news was "unacceptable", Winton was removed from the position. Only in 1975 would a woman read the national news again, when Angela Rippon began working as a newsreader.

Winton spoke about the "prejudice and discrimination" she faced, telling the Daily Mail in 1964: "There were times when I was doing the announcing when I wanted to shout aloud like Shylock, ‘Hath not woman eyes, ears, senses?’

"In Italy and Spain they have women newsreaders who are beautiful and sexy too. We’re afraid of that here.”