Many friends and former colleagues of retired Wootton Bassett teacher Pat White, 67, filled Kingsdown Crematorium chapel to celebrate her life.

Mrs White, who retired two years ago after teaching for 30 years at Wootton Bassett School, and had successfully overcome cancer, died unexpectedly following a very brief illness, Wootton Bassett Choral Society, with whom she performed regularly, sang Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus as their tribute to Pat, who was one of their founder members. She was also a member of Swindon Choral Society for some years.

The hymns All things Bright and Beautiful and Morning Has Broken were included in the funeral, at which the main floral tribute was the work of Wootton Bassett Flower Club, whose meetings she enjoyed in retirement.

June Watton, Pat’s sister, spoke warmly about their shared childhood and youth.

Tributes by Mrs White’s sons David and Neil provided memories of her later life and some amusing incidents from their schooldays.

A poem To my Friends was read by Mrs Jennie Ferris, who was Mrs White’s colleague for many years. Another reading was entitled Afterglow.

Mrs White was described as a warm, generous, inspirational person, with an uncanny ability, in all aspects of life, to nurture rather than constrain, to advise rather than instruct, and to encourage rather than suppress. She was noted for her positive attitudes and strong principles.

During the Cold War, when she was an RAF wife, she threatened to picket their home V-bomber base with ban the bomb signs. “Following the crowd, or toeing the party line, was never an option if her principles would be compromised,” one son said.

As a teacher, despite her strictness which earned the nickname, The Dragon, she was noted for fairness, and often bought fun to the classroom.

Mrs White had a natural ability to get her ideas across, and the school has revealed that her pupils’ exam results were consistently among the best every achieved.

In retirement, she gained immense pleasure in meeting friends, theatre-going, gardening and visiting garden centres. She was passionate about gardening and was a prolific grower of vegetables and flowers. However, her chief delight was in her grandchildren, Anna seven, Adam eight, Abigail, six and Daniel 17 months.

Memorial donations will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Trust and The Woodlands Trust.