A FORMER head teacher of Queen Ethelburga’s school, Jean Town, has died aged 82.

Born Jean Mary Bankcroft in Keighley, West Yorkshire, she was a diligent and bright pupil and went on to Oxford University where she became an athlete and rower, before she met and married Arthur Town.

The couple had four sons: John, Stephen, Andrew and Simon, and when her youngest son went to school, Mrs Town became a maths teacher before she joined the staff of the independent school Queen Ethelburga’s in 1966, which she later took over as headmistress in 1988, and oversaw the moving of the school from Harrogate to Thorpe Underwood Hall.

In 1993 Mrs Town retired from Queen Ethelburga’s and moved with Arthur to Grange over Sands in Cumbria to take back up their love of hill-walking, but Arthur was diagnosed with dementia and Jean became his full-time carer until he died in 2003.

Mrs Town was also grandmother to Katie, Stephen, Joss, Laura, Christopher and Sampson, and a member of St Mary’s Church in Allithwaite, Cumbria, where Reverend Rob Jackson described her as a keystone of the congregation and said she would be deeply missed.

He said: “Jean was always there.

“She always thought about other people and what she could do to help others.

“She had a generous heart and I will always remember that even though she had been in hospital herself she found time to send flowers to my wife who had gone through an operation. That was Jean, such a kind and thoughtful lady.”

Mrs Town’s funeral took place yesterday at St Marys’s CE Church in Allithwaite, Cumbria.