A ‘STRONG, independent woman’ who served as a WWII sergeant and raised three children while working from home has been remembered following her death.

Born in Bitterne, Southampton, Beryl Cuthbert worked in a flight control room for the territorial army during WWII, before meeting and marrying Bob when she was a nurse in 1951.

They moved to Epping and lived in Kendal Avenue for 66 years.

While her husband, a well known saddler for Bachelors who died in 2004, went out to work, Mrs Cuthbert kept the house in order, looked after their three children and tallied up the accounts for businesses across Epping on a comptometer.

Daughter Ann Stuart said: “It was a great big machine that required great skill to use.

“I remember as a kid being in the living room with the TV on trying to watch it while mum was in the same room doing the comptometer.

“She had three children and a husband to look after, but it brought extra cash into the house.”

As well as juggling domestic responsibilities with a job, Mrs Cuthbert set up the female section of Epping Bowls Club after outgrowing the role of tea maid for her husband and his teammates.

She would go on to serve as president, taking over the Second Epping Brownie Pack in her spare time before serving as district commissioner.

Mrs Stuart, who received an MBE for her work in the Met’s child protection unit, said her mother’s attitude rubbed off on her and her two brothers – Ian, an Epping Forest based karate instructor, and John, who works for the Bank of New Zealand.

She said: “She was always very supportive of our ambitions. I would say if there is one bit of her DNA in the grand children that’s a good thing.

“While she worked, she still had meals on the table and still did the wifely duties that are a bit more shared now.

“She was an organiser. She was a strong independent woman. I suppose some would say she was bossy, but she wanted things to be done properly.

“This is the year of women. We have had International Women’s day and it is the centenary of suffrage. We are not putting her on a pedestal on her own as there are many women out there who did similar things. But she epitomised what could be achieved.”

Mrs Cuthbert died in a care home at 91 on March 7, 2018, surrounded by her family.