Tributes have been paid to a Bromley teacher who was in the profession for 60 years.

Mary Inkpen sadly passed away on November 27 aged 82, after battling cancer.

A long term resident of Bromley North Road, she taught at Chislehurst Road School for around 40 years, before joining Midfield Primary School in Orpington.

Starting her career aged just 20 at the Chislehurst school, her sister Julie Hayes said it was all she ever wanted to do.

She was the president of the Kent Schools Swimming Association and member of the Bromley National Union of Teachers (NUT), only stepping down last year after 59 years of service.

Ms Hayes, 74, said: "She kept going and teaching longer than she needed to, into her seventies. She still helped out at events in her eighties.

"She always wanted to be a teacher, she loved it. She never wanted to be a headteacher; she just loved taking her class.

"She did things like football; she was a coach so she could teach the boys football properly! She was always playing rounders, she loved sport and education.

"Her classroom was called MI5 - her initials and year group. The children all loved that!"

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Mary in her younger days 

After discovering she could not have children at 19, Ms Hayes said her sister spent her time teaching and travelling.

She added: "She never married but she travelled everywhere and she enjoyed her teaching. I was the more stay at home type but she had these fantastic holidays."

With a ‘lovely’ sense of humour, Ms Hayes said: "Many years ago, the father of one of her pupils died suddenly. The boy had a four-year-old sister, and she let her sit in the class while the mother sorted everything out, that was the kind of person she was.

"I heard one of her pupils recently passed an accounting exam, and she said 'that's thanks to Miss Inkpen - though she wouldn't have been pleased it was 99% not 100%!'"

Nicknamed Inky, her sister said her name was great for teaching the hundreds of local children who came through her classroom.

Her niece, Ally Inkpen, added: "She lived up to the last minute. She would have done anything for anybody."

Her funeral was held at Beckenham Crematorium on December 15.

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