A LIFELONG Islander, who worked at Saunders-Roe during the war years, Peggy Simpson, has died at the age of 95.
She was the second of four children born to Samuel and Alice Arnold and grew up in Upton Road, Ryde.
She attended Haylands Congregational Church where her grandfather was a lay preacher and a leader of the Band of Hope.
She attended Bettesworth Road School until the family settled at Belmont Farm Cottages, Binfield, and she attended Whippingham school, a two-mile walk from home.
Here she developed a lifelong love of poetry and gymnastics, and was still reciting favourite poems in her final years.
With the effects of wartime bombing, her family moved to East Cowes in 1943.
Peggy worked mainly night shift on the capstan lathe at Saunders-Roe, enjoying the camaraderie of the workplace, although she had hoped to become a hairdresser.
In later years, she worked at Fibre Resin Development.
She married John Simpson, a childhood friend, in 1948 and they had two daughters, the youngest of whom died in infancy.
They enjoyed the outdoor life and for many years belonged to East Cowes Sailing Club and used a motorbike and sidecar for leisure.
Mrs Simpson cared for her husband, throughout a ten-year period when he had Parkinson's Disease, until he died in 1996.
She continued to enjoy her many interests, which included gardening, dressmaking, history, current affairs and music.
Following a fall in 2014, Mrs Simpson moved to Highfield Nursing Home but maintained her sense of humour to the end, despite increasing deafness.
She is survived by her daughter, Julie, and 12 nieces and nephews.
The funeral has taken place.