A FUNERAL will take place on Friday for a well-known Selby teacher and shopkeeper.

Beryl Clarke died in St John’s Care Home, Kirk Hammerton, on August 24, at the age of 96.

Mrs Clarke was born Beryl Watson, and her father was Bob Watson, a partner in the garage and car sales firm Watson & Mackay in Selby, along with Cecil Mackay.

She was educated at Brayton Junior School and later won a scholarship to attend Selby Girls’ High School, and became a teacher in the region for many years before her marriage to Eric Clarke.

Mrs Clarke taught at Selby Abbey School in the 1940s and early 1950s, and also taught at schools in Hull.

While in Hull, she also worked in the civil defence, and she drove ambulances in Selby during the war.

Mrs Clarke, who left teaching in 1954, opened a dress shop in Finkle Street.

In later life, friends said she was “very active”, and had “many friends who she met regularly”, at The Owl Hotel and Selby Golf Club.

While in the care home at Kirk Hammerton, she knitted 200 hats for babies in need in Africa.

Her son Graham said: “I regularly picked up mum from the care home at the weekends and brought her back to Selby for a drive round and she really enjoyed that.”

Eric Foster, one of Mrs Clarke’s former pupils, said: “She was a very good teacher, and very fair. She took us for games lessons and football, and one of the things which sticks in my mind all these years later is that she explained the offside rule to us - something even footballers don’t know these days - but it was perfect for us.”

Mrs Clarke is survived by two sons and five grandchildren.

The funeral service will be held at Selby Abbey at 10am on Friday, September 7. All are welcome.