A much-loved and respected Whitehaven teacher has died suddenly.

Patricia Routledge taught English at Whitehaven Grammar School and Whitehaven School. She was also a former chair of Whitehaven Magistrates’ Bench.

Pat, 77, was born in Seaton, the oldest of three children, and attended Workington Grammar, where she met her husband Alan on their first day of school in 1950.

A talented dancer, as well as a gifted writer, she read English at Leeds University and started her teaching career at Knaresborough Girls’ Grammar School.

Thanks to an unexpected departure in the department, Pat was informed on arrival that she would have the responsibility of taking the A-level set, barely three years after sitting the exam herself.

Unruffled, she rose to the challenge, and steered the first of many thousands of students to success.

Following her marriage to Alan in 1962, and subsequent teaching posts in Lancashire, Pat returned to Cumberland to teach English at Whitehaven Grammar School, guiding classes with her passion for language and her natural ability to communicate the complexities as well as the magic of English literature.

She assumed additional pastoral care responsibilities as head of Marshall House, where her warmth and genuine interest in her pupils resulted in lifelong friendships; for many years after, Pat loved getting updates from ‘her old girls and boys’, some of whom had been inspired by their time with her to pursue careers in the arts and education.

When Whitehaven School was formed, she took particular pleasure in introducing many students to Shakespeare in performance through the trips she organised to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Pat, who lived at Seascale, was also a long-serving JP on Whitehaven Magistrates’ Bench where she was well-known for her intelligence, compassion and quick wit. One of the youngest appointees in the country at only 32 in 1971, she served on many panels, including a term as a highly respected Chairman of the Bench, until her retirement in 2009.

Pat leaves behind Alan, her husband of nearly 54 years, and daughters Victoria, a writer, and Alex, a primary school teacher, both proud inheritors of their mother’s love of learning.

A funeral service will be held at St Cuthbert’s, Seascale, at 1.15pm on Friday 29th July, after a private cremation.