The former Mayor of Woodstock and long-serving town councillor Pauline Richardson, 75, has died.

Mrs Richardson lost a long fight with a terminal illness on November 6, bringing to an end decades of public service in the town where she settled more than 40 years ago.

She will also be remembered as a stalwart of Woodstock in Bloom, helping the town win gold in the regional finals and taking the town to the national finals three times.

Her efforts in planting and growing flowers around the town were to be recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Mrs Richardson was born in Birmingham in 1937. Her father Robert Brooks Simpkins worked as an eye specialist.

She was educated at King’s Norton Grammar School and while still a teenager in Birmingham she met the man she was to marry in 1960, Robin Richardson.

She went on to Homerton College, Cambridge, before becoming a religious studies teacher in Kent for two years.

The couple later moved to Bristol, where Mr Richardson taught at Clifton College in the 1960s.

They were to settle in Woodstock in 1969 when Mr Richardson took up a research post at Oxford University’s department of Educational Studies. Her continuing interest in education saw Mrs Richardson serving as a governor at Woodstock Primary School over two decades.

She also served for many years as a church warden at Woodstock’s St Mary Magdalene Parish Church.

Mrs Richardson was first elected onto Woodstock Town Council in 1992, going on to serve as mayor between 2004 and 2006.

She became the key figure in setting up and leading the Woodstock in Bloom working group.

She was handed the outstanding commitment to the community award at the Thames and Chilterns in Bloom Regional Awards in 2011.

At the same ceremony, Woodstock was presented with its fourth gold award, having previously won the accolade in 2007, 2008 and 2009. It also picked up gold in 2012.

Mrs Richardson started gardening aged 12, working in neighbours’ gardens during school holidays.

Mrs Richardson said after one award ceremony: “I first began at the end of the war, seeing if you could make a tin hat into a hanging basket.

“When we started, Woodstock did not have flower beds on the road sides, tubs everywhere and flower towers in the square. We have encouraged pride in where we live and people have a sense of well-being when they look around.”

She was a long-term supporter of the town’s main youth club and led the negotiations to clear Market Place for markets.

She is also credited with helping bring about the landscaping of the local water meadows and the establishment of a low cost housing scheme at Budd’s Close.

Mrs Richardson died at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. A funeral service will be held on Monday, November 18 at 11am at Woodstock St Mary Magdalene Parish Church, followed by burial at Lawn Cemetery.

Mrs Richardson leaves husband Robin, three children, Jonathan, Rachel and Benedict and four grandchildren: Rizwaan, Maleeha, Amaala and Maximilian.