Tributes have been paid to a well-known former school teacher and charity chairman who died last week aged 87.

Heather Wall, from Tankerton, was a popular character in the Whitstable area and was the founder of the Daisy Chain nursery school in Bellevue Road.

She also worked for the Abbeyfield Society, which provides sheltered housing for the elderly, and worked at the Westmeads Community Infant School in Cromwell Road for 12 years.

She died peacefully in her sleep at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday, January 7 after suffering a heart attack.

Her husband Guy Wall, a former journalist, said: “She was the happiest and friendliest person I have ever met. She had a wicked sense of humour.

“She was extremely well-known in the town, she knew numerous people and was always making friends.

“She stopped teaching at 50 due to health reasons and then was the chairman of a charity working with young people and one who looks after the elderly – all this for a person who retired from work from ill health!”

Mrs Wall was born in Exmouth in 1927 and moved to Tankerton in 1955, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary with Guy in 2011.

"She was the happiest and friendliest person I have ever met..." - Guy Wall

She was a social member at Chestfield Golf Club for 50 years and had three children, Sally, Stephen and Mandy.

Mr Wall, 88, added: “She loved living in Whitstable, we have lived in Tankerton Road ever since moving here. She was born by the seaside and loved living here too.”

Joanna Hall, a supervisor at the Daisy Chain charity who had previously worked with Heather, said: “Heather was an inspirational person who put families and children as her priority.

“Her legacy is the many hundreds of children being given the opportunity to develop and flourish in an inclusive environment.”

Heather’s funeral will be held at Margate Crematorium on Tuesday, January 20 from 1.20pm.