Sir – Your obituary (July 12) for the veteran canal boatwoman Rose Skinner contained the bald statement that she was illiterate. The term “illiterate” describes a person living in a literate society who cannot read or write. “Non-literate”, describing a member of a society that has no written language, might have been a more accurate term to use of Rose Skinner, born into a family who lived and worked on narrowboats (not barges, a common misusage that crept into the obituary).

Interviewed about her early life by Mark Davies and myself for our book A Towpath Walk in Oxford, Rose recalled: “It was a waste of time to go to school just for an hour or two. We used to go sometimes in Longford; three of us at one desk!

“The teacher would give us a book and say, ‘Read what you can’. Well, if you can’t read, how can you read what you can? And then our Mam would come and say, ‘We’re loaded now, you’ll have to come away’. That’s all the schooling we had.”

Because of their nomadic lifestyle, many pre-war canal people were non-literate but in most of them numeracy was highly developed — Rose retained an infallible memory for dates, distances, and tonnages until the end of her long life — and both the women and the men were extremely skilled in handling boats, horses, engines and cargoes.

Rose Skinner will long be remembered by her friends within and beyond the canal community for her resilience, her humour, and her loyalty. Thank you for recording her passing.

Catherine Robinson , Oxford