A son has paid tribute to his mother following her death after a long illness.

Marie Donovan, who taught at Kensington Primary school in Manor Park from the 1950s until 1983, passed away last month at the age of 88.

Her son Paul Donovan, said: “Mum has gone after battling against her final illness. It has been an up and down existence for her over the last few years, with the past 18 months particularly trying.”

He said there was a steady deterioration in the quality of her life as she lost her eyesight and her hearing worsened. She also suffered from arthritis.

He said: “My Mum was a battler all her life. Her Mum died when she was 10. She was put in the “care” of a governess, who regularly beat her with a rod. Mum was so traumatised by the experience that years later on a day out at school she fainted upon spotting the former governess in the street.

“Mum went to a boarding school, run by nuns, excelling academically and on the hockey field. She was always full of praise for the nuns and what they did for her.”

She became a teacher and spent more than 30 years at Kensington School in Manor Park where she met her husband Denis Donovan. She went on to have two sons, Andrew and Paul in the 1960s.

They moved to Eastbourne in 1986 after the couple retired. Her husband died in 2008.

Paul said: “One of the enduring gifts of my Mum was her constant kindness toward others. She was always considerate of other people and tried to help out where and when she could. She was also a very tolerant, live and let live person.”