A 79-year-old widow who died while travelling on her own in India had planned her funeral before she left the UK, an inquest heard.

Retired teacher Brenda Gumbley was suffering from heart disease and had been forced to postpone the trip due to ill health, Assistant Dorset Coroner Grant Davies was told.

Her friend, Rev Canon Jane Lloyd told the hearing: “I don’t think she went to India intending to die but she realised it was a real possibility.”

The Bournemouth inquest heard Mrs Gumbley, of Benlease Way, Swanage, travelled to India in January 2016 and was found on the ground, unresponsive, during a trip to Amer Fort in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

There is no evidence as to what happened to her.

Mrs Gumbley, a former PE assistant and geography teacher at Oakmead Girls’ School in Bournemouth, died later the same day in Jaipur District Hospital.

The inquest was told that a post mortem examination was carried out in India but that no cause of death was recorded.

Despite repeated attempts, the coroner’s office in Bournemouth has been unable to secure any further information from the Indian authorities.

The cause of her death has now been recorded as unascertained.

Coroner’s officer Andrew Lord said he is not aware of any third party involvement or suspicious circumstances surrounding Mrs Gumbley’s death. Mrs Gumbley was born in Birmingham and was a PE instructor in the Women’s RAF. She married Cyril Gumbley in 1957 and they moved to Bournemouth with their sons, Peter and Mike, in 1966.

She worked at Oakmead Girls’ School before moving to Swanage and becoming a tutor and examiner. She also became a lay chaplain at Poole Hospital.

Recording an open verdict, Mr Davies said: “She was an active and independent lady, she was a spiritual lady. I have little or no witness evidence as to how she came to be found.

“Sadly on the evidence I have today I am unable to record any other conclusion.”