A FORMER chair of East Dorset District Council has died aged 88.

Nellie Dorothy Comfort nee Allen was born in Bournemouth on November 3 1929. From childhood, she was affectionately known as ‘Queenie’.

Due to her mother's ill-health and subsequent early death, she was raised by her grandparents.

She was awarded a scholarship to a private school during the war years, and went on to attend a teacher training college before taking up a teaching post at Pinelands preparatory school in Bournemouth.

She met and married Roy David Whorley, who was known as John, in 1953. Their son, David Charles Whorley, was born in 1955.

The couple eventually moved to Summertown, Oxford, where Mr Whorley took up a position as retail branch manager at Martins newsagents.

It was around this time Mrs Whorley first got involved in local politics. She went onto become a city and county councillor.

After many years of service she was awarded the honour of being Sheriff of Oxford in 1987 and Lord Mayor of Oxford in 1988.

In about 1991 she and Mr Whorley divorced, and she married John Bailey Comfort. The couple moved to Ferndown in 1994. Mr Comfort died in 1996.

After his death, Mrs Comfort rekindled her interest in local politics and was elected as a town councillor before later becoming a county councillor in East Dorset. She became a mayor for the second time in Ferndown.

In addition, Mrs Comfort actively supported a number of charities in the area, including Ferndown's Age UK branch. She also spent much of her time volunteering at the Barrington Centre, where she served as a committee member.

She had to leave her Ferndown home for health reasons in 2015.

Mrs Comfort lived with her son in Banbury before moving to a nursing home. She died from heart failure at the Horton General Hospital on December 13.

She is survived by her son David Whorley, her granddaughters Natalie and Melissa, her great-grandchildren Rowan, Cecily and Theadora, and several generations of her second family.

A funeral will be held at St Mary’s Church, Broughton, near Banbury at 11.50am on January 16.

Flowers to Edd Frost Funeral Directors, Banbury.