PHYLLIS Ivy Percivall, also known as Pat Ward, who spent more than 30 years running a drama group in Chippenham, was remembered at a celebration of her life last month, after she died at the age of 101.

Born on September 13, 1915, she was the youngest of six children born to William Henry and Bertha May Percivall in the borough of Eltham, London.

The family moved to the outskirts of Birmingham shortly after to avoid the bombing of the First World War and from an early age Mrs Ward enjoyed writing plays and casting family members in roles.

Excelling in maths, she attended Queens College briefly and then studied at the Comptometer School, learning the skill of operating a new, revolutionary American calculating machine in which she trained people across the country.

She met her future husband, Ted, while taking part in a ballroom dance and they married on December 11, 1937, despite Mrs Ward suffering from jaundice and being wrapped in thermals beneath her wedding dress.

In February 1938, they moved to the West Country to the parish of Iron Acton, near to Yate on the North Road, and her husband worked for Parnall Aircraft redesigning the gun turrets on the Spitfire.

The couple welcomed their only child, Angela, on August 19, 1940, and they had a passion for dogs, taking in a Bull terrier, Yorkshire terrier and Welsh collies before later breeding Labradors.

She studied and took the Associated Board of Music, Speech and Drama examinations and also ballet before she started Yate Juvenile Players for four to 16-year-olds, rehearsing at home and putting on plays and mini pantomimes in the village halls at Old Sodbury and Rangeworthy.

The family moved to Chippenham in 1959, and Mrs Ward set up another drama group for four to 16-year-olds at St Paul’s Church which lasted 33 years before the death of her husband in 1993.

She died on November 13, 2016, and leaves behind her daughter Angela and grandchildren Becky and Adam.