DORSET headteacher and local historian Mildred Gillett died on July 15 at the grand old age of 105, at the Nightingale Nursing Home in Bournemouth where she had been well looked after for 11 years.

The youngest of five children of David and Susan Gillett, she was born on April 17, 1909, at her parents' home in Canford Road, Wallisdown.

In 1913 she started at St Mark's Church of England Junior School in Talbot Village, although that winter she missed some nine weeks through pneumonia.

In September 1915 she transferred to Alma Road School for Girls in Bournemouth, Hampshire, where she was admitted to a class of 72 thanks to the wartime shortage of teachers, and five years later she moved to Talbot Heath School on a scholarship.

Ms Gillett grew to love teaching while working on supply at rural schools in 1926, and a few years later she attended Stockwell Training College in London, and a social science course at the London School of Economics.

Her career started in 1932 at St Paul’s School in Bournemouth, where she had a class of 52 children aged five to seven, but only six years later at the age of just 29 she became the headmistress of Hampreston Junior School.

In September 1955, she was appointed as headmistress at Colehill Junior School near Wimborne Minster. She retired in 1969.

She loved her lifelong work in education and her love of children shone through as she saw them develop.

Following her retirement, Mrs Gillett travelled to stay with her brother Mont in Australia for several months, and she took in Japan and Canada on the return voyage.

During her earlier years of retirement she worked as an advisor for the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

She was very interested in local history and published Wanderings in Talbot Village in 1976, followed by Kinson 1894-1931 – with Edna Bevan – in 1982.

In October 1990, the Borough of Poole named Gillett Road in her honour for her work on local history.

Ms Gillett didn’t marry, but lived at home and cared for her parents until their deaths. She later cared for Miss Brookes with whom she taught when they met in 1932 at St Paul’s school.

Although she had no children herself, she loved to spend time with the youngsters of her extended family, and stayed with them during school holidays.

She turned 100 years old in April 2009, and as part of the celebrations returned to Hampreston School where she addressed staff and pupils – having lost none of her old headmistress skills.

She received a second card from the Queen for her 105th birthday in April this year. She leaves a host of much-loved great-nieces and nephews.