Trudy Burbidge (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Trudy Burbidge

9:42am Thursday 18th January 2007

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St Bartholomew's Church, Wootton Bassett,was filled for the funeral of Trudy Burbidge, who died, after a brief illness, just before her 35th birthday.

Trudy was educated at the County Infants, Noremarsh Junior and Wootton Bassett School before going to university, where she gained an honours degree in Environmental Science. Subsequently, she discovered her vocation and gained her PGCE at Cheltenham, to qualify as a teacher. Since 1998 she had taught at Gorse Hill Infant School, Swindon, where an Ofsted inspection classed her work as outstanding.

On the last day of term, Miss Burbidge was feeling unwell, and she died in hospital six days later, without knowing that she had terminal cancer.

Tributes at the funeral were paid by her elder brother Robert Yeo and her fiance Stephen Harvey, whom she had been due to marry in June.

Mr Yeo said: "Her passing happened with the utmost dignity and I wish to acknowledge the care and sensitivity which Trudy received from all the staff in her short stay at the ICU at Great Western Hospital. Had her illness been discovered at an earlier stage,we are told that little could have been done to prolong her life," he said.

"She was cheerful, fun-loving, modest, caring and gentle." He praised her enthusiasm, love of children, tolerance, irrepressible sense of humour and iron will. She was a gifted, dedicated teacher, in whose memory the many messages and floral tributes left at the school gates and the comments of colleagues all reflected the warmth and high regard in which she was held.

Miss Burbidge's fiancé, Stephen Harvey, said he would be eternally grateful for their meeting, via an Internet dating service, for which they signed up at the insistence of friends.

The Rev Thomas Woodhouse spoke especially to a group of Miss Burbidge's pupils, who were welcomed with applause. The service in church was followed by interment at Wootton Bassett Cemetery.

Memorial cheques for the Prospect Hospice may be sent to Maslin Funeral Service, 118a High Street, Wootton Bassett.

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