WELL-known and remembered for her writing skills and her involvement with the Royal Manor Theatre during the 20 years she spent on Portland, Penny Protheroe died at Hereford Hospital on October 18, aged 98.

Born in Ostend, Belgium, she was brought to England as an infant and adopted by a Welsh couple.

She started working life as an uncertificated teacher in a school but it did not prove successful for personal reasons and she went on to Cardiff University to read English and languages.

Then, as it was wartime, she joined the ATS, a career which lasted only three days as ‘she was not amenable to discipline’.

She tried a variety of short-lived occupations, including nursing, and finally served King and country by joining the Land Army. On demobbing, she returned to complete teacher training and started at Winstone Primary School in Birmingham where she eventually became headteacher and remained there until she took early retirement in 1978.

Penny searched for an island to live on either at home or abroad but nothing suited her until, introduced to Portland by a Weymouth friend, she said in an interview for the Dorset Echo’s Face to Face series: “Crossing the causeway, the sweeping arc of the beach seemed to embrace me and I knew I had come home.”

She soon became involved with the Royal Manor Theatre Company where she founded its junior branch, The Playmakers.

She joined the Island Poets’ Circle where she met Skylark Durstan and in conjunction with him, wrote a book of short stories, A Good Half Dozen.

Her other books, all centred on the island and its legends, included Priory Corner, Aprons For Eli and Phantom in Stone, and in addition to winning the Dorset WI Anniversary short story competition, she was the winner of an Echo writing competition.

Years prior to this, she was instrumental in starting the former Dorchester Soroptimists and was Dorset delegate at the international meeting in Vienna, chosen as she was fluent in German, Welsh, Italian, Dutch and Urdu.

Due to failing health, she left Portland in 2008 to live in a nursing home close to a relative, her distant cousin through her adoptive parents.

She wanted to be buried on Portland so Penny Protheroe is being ‘brought home’ and her funeral service will be held at the Church of John the Baptist, Fortuneswell at 11.30am on November 6, followed by interment at Portland Cemetery.