Friends and family have declared the death of Molly Eagle the end of an era.

Miss Eagle, who was 91, lived in Oxford all her life, first working on the railway and later becoming a teacher in East Oxford.

Aged five, she started attending Miss Cross's School in Botley Road, where she was one of only 13 pupils in the class.

Miss Eagle was made to leave school shortly after her 15th birthday. She started working at the office of Timms and Fleet, in George Street, as a secretary.

About a year after she had started working there, her father told her there was a chance of her working in the Telegraph Office at the railway station in Oxford.

Miss Eagle would continue to work at the Telegraph Office for the next 17 years until 1949, working through the war years.

In 1949 a meeting with an old school friend would lead to a change in career for Miss Eagle. The old friend told her that teachers had been asked if they knew anyone who would be prepared to go to teacher training college, and her friend recommended her.

After a successful entrance interview, Miss Eagle attended college at Wimpole Park, between Royston and Cambridge.

Her first teaching job after completing her course, was at Cowley St Christopher School in East Oxford.

But she did not like the teaching environment and left the post within a year.

She then started teaching at SS Mary and John School, East Oxford, in 1952.

Miss Eagle passed away on July 31, after spending the last few years of her life living in the Greengates Nursing Home.

More than 100 people turned out to pay their last respects at the service held at St Michael and All Angels Church in Summertown, where she had been a member of the congregation for more than 60 years.

She will be sadly missed by all those who knew her