Mary Price

A retired teacher, described as one of the most distinguished woman in Oxford, has died just months short of her 100th birthday.

Mary Roper Price, a former headmistress of Milham Ford School, in Harberton Mead, died last week.

Miss Price, of Hayward Road, Cutteslowe, retired in 1966, but remained a respected educator and historian. She held an OBE for services to education, wrote a number of history text books, and was also a keen angler and sports fan.

She was born in Warwickshire, and trained in Bedford, before becoming a PE teacher at Oxford High School.

She then took a history degree at St Anne's College.

The Rev Michael Chantry, a friend and assistant priest at St Peter's Church, Wolvercote, said: "She was very interesting and one of the most distinguished women in the city of Oxford. She was an historian of considerable merit and she knew her subject well. She will be very much missed. She was very knowledgable on matters to do with education."

Anne Peterson, the headteacher of Milham Ford School, said: "Miss Price was respected by many members of staff. The school today still benefits from the foundations she laid when she was here."

Her funeral takes place at 11.45am tomorrow at St Peter's, Wolvercote.