The First Ever Female TV Newsreader On BBC, Nancy Winton Is Dead

Nancy Wigginton, the first woman to read the news on BBC television, has died at the age of 93.

The broadcaster, who was better known as Nan Winton, died in hospital on May 11 after a fall in her home in Bridport, Dorset.

She passed away in Dorchester County Hospital where she was taken after the accident.

An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned at Bournemouth coroner’s court on Thursday.

Coroner’s officer Ken McEwan said Ms Wigginton had been falling frequently before her death and had become frail.

She had fractured her femur on the day she was taken to hospital and had surgery the day after.

 She was the first female newsreader on BBC television – here she is interviewing politician Barbara Castle in 1961

But she was later taken into critical care when her heart, kidneys and respiratory system began to fail.

Her cause of death on the ward was congestive heart failure, hypertension and frailty of old age.

A full inquest into her death will take place in January 2020.

Ms Wigginton, who was divorced, was a continuity announcer on the BBC from 1958 to 1961.

She also worked on programmes including Town and Around and Panorama.

She started reading the six o’clock news and weekend bulletins on Sunday evenings in 1960.

At the time, it was reported that viewers didn’t think it was acceptable for a woman to read the news and she was taken out of the role in 1961.

Ms Wigginton remained the only woman to have read national news on BBC TV until 1975 when Angela Rippon started working as a newsreader.

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