THE Bar Convent has bid a final farewell to much-loved teacher and author, Sister Margaret Mary Littlehales, who has died aged 102.

Sister Margaret Mary served an astonishing 83 years as a member of the Congregation of Jesus (CJ) and lived out her final years in St Joseph’s, a house belonging to York’s Bar Convent where she lived to see the new extension being built.

Born on April 5 1907, Sister Margaret Mary became a nun in 1926 aged 19, when George V was on the throne, Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister and the country was going through the trauma of the General Strike.

She went on to become a gifted English Literature teacher, teaching hundreds of children in many CJ schools, including 26 years at the Bar Convent between 1954 and 1980, before returning these on her retirement in 1999.

She also taught Latin and Greek and in later years, German.

Alongside her teaching, Sister Margaret Mary assisted in the restoration of the Bar Convent, arranging for the convents archives to be professionally catalogued.

It was her writing on Mary Ward – the North Yorkshire woman who in 1609 founded the order of nuns that live at the Bar Convent – which gave her most pleasure. Her most notable work, Mary Ward, Pilgrim and Mystic was begun in 1975 and took 23 years to complete.

Published in 1998, it was an instant best seller and introduced the general public to Mary Ward.

One of her sisters and a cousin, Sisters Scholastica and Sister Magdelen, joined her as members of the Mary Ward Institute.

In 1999 at the age of 92, Sister Margaret Mary retired from St Joseph’s and in September 2006 she celebrated the 80th anniversary of taking her religious vows.

She celebrated her 100th birthday in April 2007 with a quiet Mass and received over 100 cards from family and friends as well as a personal card from The Queen.

Sister Margaret Mary died peacefully at St Joseph’s on Wednesday and her funeral will take place on Thursday, followed by burial at the Bar Convent cemetery where her sister and cousin are also buried.