Mary Bond, matriarch of the Romany Gypsy community

Born to Caroline Hughes and Johnny Cooper, she was the eldest of eight children who grew up in rural Dorset.

Her childhood was tough but fondly remembered, she and her brothers and sisters working on farms alongside her parents.

All our pictures from Mary Bond's funeral

She met her husband Harold Bond, a dairyman, while the family were staying in Blandford.

They married on January 9, 1939, at the parish church, shortly before he embarked for Europe during the Second World War, fighting in Belgium and at Dunkirk.

Their first child Caroline was stillborn, but they went on to have John, born at Hungry Down, Rosie, born at the Boggs in Wallisdown, Lovie, born at Carters Down, and Jimmy, who was born in Thornicombe.

The Bonds travelled with her parents when they first married. Mrs Bond would work hoeing, hop picking and fruit picking, and the family travelled to Bridgewater to work on the pea fields and cut sugar beat.

In the 1950s, they settled at a house in East Street, Blandford, for several years, but were soon on the move again.

They travelled on to Carter Down where they lived in a shepherd’s hut while Mrs Bond worked on the land there.

Her son John made a wooden horse-drawn wagon which became their home on the side of Old Wareham Road until it one day caught fire, and then they moved to Canford Heath.

There Mrs Bond worked hawking lace, heather, scrap metal, rabbit skins and more, travelling as far afield as Winchester.

Her husband died in 1965. She and her family moved to Mannings Heath in the early 1970s, travelling into Bournemouth with best friend Tilly Johnson to sell heather and charms.

Later in life she lived in homes in Bedford Road and Farwell Road, Poole, and with her sister Celia and Frank Benham in Stourpayne.

Mrs Bond loved her family, attending their parties, christenings and weddings, and accompanying them to fairs across the country.

She died a great great-grandmother, aged 94, in January.