A tireless volunteer and former school caretaker has died aged 86.

Grandmother June Humphrey, from Loose, worked at Park Way Primary School for many years and was awarded the Pride of Maidstone award in 2002 for her contribution to the town.

Mrs Humphrey died in January after catching Covid-19.

Remembering his mum, son Bryan, 59, said: “She was always helping people and wanting to get involved in organising stuff. She was charitable and approachable all the way through her life.”

As a child Mrs Humphrey picked apples at an orchard in Allington, where her dad, Ernest, was a foreman.

Ernest Drive, in Allington, is named after him.

As a girl, she contracted polio, which left her with walking problems most of her life.

She left East Borough Secondary School at 14, but not before meeting her future husband Raymond, a West Borough pupil at the time, on a school trip.

She worked at a greengrocers and newsagents in central Maidstone before marrying Raymond in 1954 in the County Town.

The couple, who were the same age, had five sons. Mrs Humphrey worked at Maidstone Grammar School for Boys before going on to Park Way in the early 1990s.

Her job as caretaker was seen as more of a man’s role at the time.

Bryan said: “I remember her saying a couple of times that she’d just been on a bricklaying or a general maintenance course and was the only woman there.”

During the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 she dressed up as Her Majesty for the school pupils and was driven through the County Town in a Rolls Royce owned by her son.

She also received the Pride of Maidstone award from the borough council in the same year.

Even after her retirement about 15 years ago she continued to fundraise for the school by holding events, raising enough cash for a new stage.

Mrs Humphrey suffered with dementia in her later life but continued to hold the school and the children “dearly” in her heart.

As a volunteer, she visited the elderly in care homes and worked with the Alzheimer’s Society and the Heart of Kent Hospice.

She is survived by her husband, five sons, one sister, 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

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