FRIENDS and former colleagues will gather to remember a much-loved teacher, who has died at the age of 88.

Barbara Addington taught Biology at St Barnabas School – which later become Woodbridge High School – from 1956 until 1970, before moving to Mayfield Secondary School in Chadwell Heath.

She died at her home in Grove Park, Wanstead, on November 19.

Barbara was born in Dymock, Gloucestershire in 1921. She married Phil Duncan in 1945 while he was on leave from the RAF, and the couple lived in in the south-west until 1954 before moving to Wanstead with their two young children.

The pair were both keen Latin and ballroom dancers, and won many medals in competition. Sadly, Phil died in 1970.

A few years later, Barbara remarried after finding love again with a former colleague at Woodbridge High School, Arthur Addington, who had also served in the RAF as a fighter pilot flying Hurricanes and later Typhoons.

Barbara was well known for her compassionate nature and care for others. In her later career and retirement she became involved in charity, and worked with the NSPCC and Compassion in World Farming.

Arthur passed away in 1999, and Barbara's health began to deteriorate, and she suffered a debilitating stroke in 2004.

Her funeral will be held at the City of London Crematorium on Monday, December 7, at 2.30pm.