WHEN, in 1971, this newspaper published for the first time a photograph of a naked model — on a full page — there ensued something of a commotion. “There had never, they said, been a picture quite like it in the entire 186-year history of The Times,” exclaimed The Sun later that year. “They finally came abreast of the times, so to speak, with a whacking great portrait of model Vivien Neves . . . starkers.”

Although its tone was undoubtedly mocking, The Sun’s interest in the story was legitimate. At that time, Neves was one of the red-top tabloid’s most popular Page 3 Girls; that one of its biggest assets was flaunting her wares in the paper of record must have been a shock.

Her new audience, however, proved a little more difficult to win over. “The Times should not use such matter which degrades womanhood and uses the female body as an eye-catcher,” wrote one correspondent in the Letters page. “Are you trying to drive away your readers by subscribing to the present advertising belief that it is only sex and nakedness that sells?” asked another.

Not that devotees of the Thunderer spoke with one voice. “I hope this delightful picture has the same effect on The Times’ circulation as it does on mine,” concluded a letter from Leeds, while a reader from Greenford thought the image “disgusting” only because “it wasn’t even in colour. Tut tut.”

On March 17 that year, the chemical company Fisons had bought out all the display advertising space in the newspaper to promote its various products, which included slimming biscuits and shampoo. Neves’s slender, curvaceous — and unclothed — figure appeared above the caption: “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a firm like this?” The full-page advertisement was in black-and-white because the Editor, William (now Lord) Rees-Mogg, feared that a full-page advert of a young, female nude in glorious colour might prove too much for some readers.

The Times’s break from tradition quickly made the radio and television news, and all editions of the paper consequently sold out. Neves’s own mother, Iris, was a little shocked too. “We’ve got used to her modelling now, but it is still a bit of a shock, especially to see it in that paper,” she remarked. Vivien herself, upon being told about her latest appearance (while on holiday in the Caribbean), responded: “A whole page? Wheeee! Imagine all those men in bowler hats grumbling ‘What’s this country coming to?’ ” Vivien Neves was born in Brighton and raised in a council flat. When she was 12 her father, who worked for the gas board, moved to Walton-on-Thames. She did not show vocational promise as a youngster. By the time she was 17 she had gone through four jobs. One stint included that as a lift girl.

Neves came by modelling when a local photographer asked to take pictures of her. When a newspaper used one, featuring a skirt three inches above her knee, it was inundated with phone calls — mainly from people professing their disgust. The caption to the image informed the readers that this was the daughter of the local Scoutmaster. “What’s he doing letting his daughter carry on like that?” came the response.

She was never particularly happy in Walton and at the age of 18 moved to London, where she became a “bunny” at the Raymond Revuebar strip club in Soho. On the strength of her work here, Penthouse magazine got in touch.

“Working at the club had made me immune to nudity, and the thought of showing my nipples to magazine readers didn’t bother me a bit,” she recalled, and she earned £75 by appearing as the magazine’s Pet of the Month. She also featured in a saucy calendar: one in which each successive month features a different girl in a more provocative and daring pose. She was December.

More mainstream work followed when she modelled Nelbarden swimsuits, which featured on posters on the London Underground. And in May 1970 she made her debut on The Sun’s newly launched topless Page 3.

She made £25 an hour here and rapidly became a readers’ favourite. With her 36-23-36 figure she invariably appeared as a pretty parlour maid in petticoats. Although her work was not always refined, it was never vulgar. She had a breezy, natural look, with strong cheekbones and full, pouting lips.

At her peak she was earning £20,000 a year. Yet, and much to the disappointment of her fan club, in early 1973 Neves announced her retirement. “I began to be embarrassed,” she remembered, “and instead of enjoying (being) in front of the camera, tired of it. In fact I’m bored with nudes, bored with looking at them. I don’t want to be among them.”

The Sun was consequently inundated with letters begging her not to give up the day job. One, from John Halpin of Bermondsey, summed up the mood: “Could you please inform the delectable Viv Neves that even if she walked down the middle of Oxford Street, wearing a pair of wellingtons, a boiler suit and a balaclava, every hot-blooded male in the vicinity would still think she is the sexiest bird in the business. Please don’t go, Viv.”

She moved to Guildford, married John Kelly, the photographer, and later that year became a mother. In 1979, however, she announced to her family that she had had multiple sclerosis diagnosed. It left her weak and struggling to walk, but she battled on, living in her Surrey home, surrounded by many cats.

She was divorced from John Kelly in 1985. She is survived by him and their daughter, Kelly.

Vivien Neves, nude model, was born on November 20, 1947. She died from multiple sclerosis on December 29, 2002, aged 55.