THE death has occurred at The Pines, Appleby, of teacher and former farmer’s wife Winifred Nicholson at the age of 92.

Winifred was born in 1916, the youngest child of Joseph and Dinah Robinson, at Nenthead, then a busy mining village where her father was employed in mining, first as a washhouse foreman but eventually as clerk to the company in charge of wages.

Together with her brother, Eric, and two sisters, Hilda and Connie, Winnie attended both the Wesleyan and the Primitive Methodist churches there, where her uncles were organist and preacher, respectively. She won a scholarship to Samuel King’s School, in Alston, and from there went to Kenton Lodge College, in Newcastle, where she qualified as a junior school teacher.

In search of work, she went to Carlisle and lodged with the Myers family at Carleton while she taught at Cotehill and Scotby schools. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with Josephine Myers which endured until old age.

While teaching at Cotehill, she met William Murray, a local farmer’s son, but their romance did not blossom immediately because he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards and was away from Cumberland until he was invalided out in 1942. They renewed their friendship and married on New Year’s Eve, 1942, and lived briefly in Carlisle until they took over the family farm at Wetheral in 1945.

Winnie gave up teaching and became a full-time farmer’s wife, something of a culture shock as she had been brought up in a comfortable home with all “mod cons”, including electricity and shops close at hand. To step back to a house with oil lamps and a black range three miles from the nearest village presented her with a challenge to which she rose with great fortitude.

As compensation, her father bought her a piano which was to provide entertainment on many an evening. She learned to drive once they could afford a car and came to grips with dealing with animals, which she always found much harder to discipline than she did children!

In 1946 their daughter Laura was born. Before too long the reason why Bill had been invalided out of the Army began to manifest itself in frequent bouts of bronchitis, which turned into emphysema, eventually compelling them to sell the farm in 1964 and retire to Burgh-by-Sands.

Winnie became the main breadwinner as well as chief carer, returning to teaching at Bowness-on-Solway, Kirkandrews-on-Eden, Silloth and Drumburgh School, where she was headmistress until it closed.

In 1967 Bill died, three weeks short of their silver wedding anniversary, and Winnie had to come to terms with life alone as her daughter had married earlier that year and moved to West Cumberland. Neighbours rallied round and she was able to indulge her love of music by joining the church choir at St. Michael’s, Burgh.

In her early days she had loved ballroom dancing and Scottish country dancing so when the opportunity arose to join an old time dancing class she went along — and met her second husband, William Nicholson, from the Forge, Kirkandrews-on-Eden. Soon after their marriage in 1971 Winnie took early retirement from teaching to help Billy with the accounts, for which she had a flair.

This was a more relaxed time in her life and the couple were able to spend time walking, travelling and indulging their common interest in ballroom dancing. Winnie also did the local house-to-house poppy collection for the British Legion.

Her new-found happiness was curtailed by Billy’s sudden heart attack in 1983. Winnie continued to live at the Forge but spent much time with her daughter, Mrs. Laura Wilson, at Skirwith, and with her friends who were also widowed.

She was a great support to all of them, throughout illness and other traumas of life, including the death of her son-in-law, Jack Wilson. In 2006, Winnie had finally left Kirkandrews to live with Laura and Jack at Skirwith.

She is survived by her daughter, grandsons Leonard and Christopher, who farm at Skirwith, their wives Julie and Judith, great grandchildren Lucy, Tamara, Harry and Matthew and stepdaughter Jaqui Nicholson and stepdaughter-in-law, Nancy Bell.

Throughout her long life, Winnie did not do anything spectacular but she left a lasting legacy with former pupils who left her care with the key to further their own education because they were able to read and write properly and were competent in arithmetic. She endeared herself to many through her acts of kindness and her great sense of humour.