Obituary: Olive Gordon, charity worker, 97

Mrs Gordon was born on May 3, 1914, in Bath and was raised in England, though she spent most of her life around the Firth of Forth.

She attended the City of Bath School for Girls and her family recalled that when she was 13, she was saving her pocket money to get a flight on a two-seater Sopwith Camel biplane.

From 1932, she studied at the highly-respected Bath College of Domestic Science, which had a prospectus including "household and high-class cookery, laundry work, dressmaking, stitching and ornamental needlework".

Mrs Gordon graduated with distinction in 1935 and got her first job with R&A Main, demonstrating how to use its increasingly popular gas cookers. The demonstrations provided her with a first taste of travelling around the country, often alone, though it was something she continued to do for the rest of her career.

The company posted her to Scotland, based in Falkirk, and it was here, at the start of the Second World War, that she met and married Leslie Gordon, a commercial traveller and a widower with a seven-year-old son.

During the post-war years, the family moved to Grangemouth and Mrs Gordon became a well-known figure in the community, helping to revamp the local Women's Voluntary Service, organising meals on wheels and voluntary women's support for local hospitals.

From 1955 to 1960, she was the Civil Defence Training Officer for Grangemouth and Stirlingshire. She set up a forum for young wives in Grangemouth.

Her work in Stirlingshire led to her being head-hunted in 1960 as a senior organiser for the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, now known as Children 1st. In 1962, she was again head-hunted to become an appeals officer for Barnardo's Scotland, based in Edinburgh, and from then until her retirement in 1975 she helped spread Barnardo's word and gather support around Scotland, travelling the country to give lectures or after-dinner speeches to organisations such as schools, universities, guilds or the Rotary Club.

Following her retirement, she continued to support the charity as a volunteer well into her 90s, helping set up its Edinburgh charity shop.

She attended and served St Cuthbert's Episcopal Church in the Colinton area of Edinburgh.

She lived her retirement years in her beloved Edinburgh, but passed away after being taken to hospital in Livingston on May 17.

Her husband passed away in 1998 and she is survived by her step-son Edward and her sons Bruce and Keith, as well as seven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.