A loving daughter has paid tribute to her ‘force to be reckoned with’ mother who helped to ‘establish a truly comprehensive education system for Dorset.’

Jill Pope of Dorchester, who has died aged 90, has been described as a ‘hugely respected woman,’ who was ‘fiercely intelligent’ and ‘didn’t take any nonsense.’

She believed that ‘everyone had a right to an education’ and she ‘fought for a comprehensive education for everyone.’

In 1967 she, along with two other ‘Winfrith Wives’ formed the Dorset Community Nursery School Association (DCNSA) to raise awareness, expectations, and ambitions.

Over the next 20 years her involvement with the pre-school movement grew to include training PPA playgroup leaders, governor posts at St Osmund’s primary School, two local secondary schools and a place on the Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education.

In the early 1980s, Jill completed her education with a degree in Politics, History and English.

This led her to the Dorset County Museum library, through which she became part of the Community Play Association. She and husband Alan became involved in the first of many community plays, Entertaining Strangers by David Edgar.

With the research team, she ensured the social and historical accuracy for the first five plays.

Jill was born in January 1934 in Paignton, Devon to Florence (née Gray) and Ralph Coombe, a builder.

She was the first born of three including two brothers Andrew and Roger.

Aged just 17, Jill was recruited by the government for the Ministry of Supply (MOS),which saw her working in Oxford.

During this time, she was working as an electronic engineer at the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment and worked on many projects, including designing and building the first radiocarbon dating machine this side of the Atlantic for Oxford University Archaeology department, as well as the world’s first blood flow monitor sensitive enough to help Guy’s Hospital in London develop hip replacement surgeries.

Her daughter Fiona Pope explained that she was employed ‘shortly after physicist and Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs worked there’ who famously passed on critical information about the atomic bomb.

Fiona added: “When he was caught and sentenced, the MOS recruited local talents so they could track where the ideas were coming from.”

Fiona explained how ‘immensely proud’ she is of her mother who ‘was swimming against the tide and forging the way.’

While at Harwell, Jill met Alan Pope and the pair married in March 1956. Four years later they moved to Dorchester for Alan’s job in Winfrith.

They have three children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Dorset Echo:

Fiona said: “Her life has been a testimony for her belief in the power of education to progress the whole of society. She championed the goal of ‘a good education for every child’ in all her education committee roles, challenging the idea that some children deserve less education than others, and focused on the ‘equality of opportunity’ that unites everyone.

Dorset Echo:

 “She always worried about wasting her talents. Everyone in the world who has had a hip replacement and the countless children educated in West Dorset who benefitted from her insight, ambition, and dedication might agree that she did not.”