A WOMAN who taught hundreds of children to swim for over half a century in York - and was still coaching and swimming until just a few weeks ago - has died, aged 87.

Pat Baxter, of Clifton, was a coach with York City Baths Club, as was her late husband Adam, and they taught and coached at swimming pools all over the city.

Her daughter Susan said she continued coaching until about a month ago, and also still swam about eight lengths a day at the Yearsley Pool. “She had gone down to about one session of coaching a week but still did it,” she said. “She never thought about stopping.

“She started swimming at the former St George’s Baths near the river, where the St George’s Field car park now is.”

Susan said her mother had encouraged and coached her, and she went on to swim for Great Britain in a contest in Luxembourg as a teenager and also swam for Scotland.

“She started to swim competitively again in her 60s and 70s in the Masters competitions.”

She said her mother was born in Tang Hall and went to Tang Hall Junior School and then Queen Anne’s Grammar School before working in the accounts offices at Terry’s factory, during which time she swam for the Terry’s team in river swims in the Ouse.

She was adventurous, hitching on her own to France on one occasion and going to work as an au pair in Denmark. She then worked for her sister and brother in law at the Edward V11 pub in Nunnery Lane, where she met her future husband Adam. The couple had one daughter Susan and one grandson, Scott.

Pat later worked for many years in various jobs at the Abbey Park Hotel in The Mount.

Susan said her mother had been ill for a short time with cancer and her funeral would take place at 11am on Monday July 31 at York Crematorium, when the collection would be for Cancer Care UK.

She added that her mother had asked those attending to wear colourful clothing rather than black, with family flowers only.