MORE than 250 people packed St Laurence’s Church in Warborough to celebrate the life of Maggie Pullen.

Among the congregation were many county and district councillors and MEP James Elles, with Henley MP John Howell playing the organ.

Mrs Pullen, who died aged 71 in Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital on April 11, was active in local life from the time she and her designer husband Richard moved to The Old Post Office in Shillingford in 1972.

She was an active voluntary worker for the Conservative Party and charity fundraiser. For many years she served as a member of Warborough and Shillingford Parish Council, later becoming chairman.

After serving as chairman of South Oxfordshire Conservative Association from 1986 to 1989 she acted as agent for the constituency on and off between 1989 and 1996, winning praise from Michael Heseltine, Henley MP and deputy Prime Minister, in his autobiography.

Mrs Pullen had a second term as chairman of the association from 1996 to 1999 and was president from 2003 to 2006.

She was also the founder 20 years ago of the South Oxfordshire Conservative Association’s Patrons’ Club, raising funds for marginal constituencies.

Between 1991 and 2006 Mrs Pullen was a volunteer for the Westminster Foundation, visiting East European countries to advise fledgling political parties on fundraising, work which won her the MBE in 1996.

During the 1990s, with her husband as treasurer, she acted as secretary of the Conservative Mainstream Patrons’ Club.

Mrs Pullen supported the Leonard Cheshire Home in Dorchester during the 1980s, where she drove the ambulance, while also running local fundraising for muscular dystrophy research.

She also helped raise more than £40,000 at a dinner at Keble College, Oxford, for the John Radcliffe Hospital’s new heart unit.

Her funeral was held on April 26.

She is survived by her husband and three daughters.