AN original teacher at Ongar School who later helped her minister husband establish one of the first junior churches in the country has died at the age of 94.

Charlotte Marles, of Bowes Drive in Ongar, died peacefully in her sleep at Ongar War Memorial Hospital on Thursday.

Although she was known as Jean to family and friends, many of her former pupils in the Ongar area will remember her as Miss Lacey, one of the first teachers at the Ongar Comprehensive School when it was newly built and opened in 1936.

One of her many achievements was to introduce country dancing, while taking all the usual lessons under headmaster George Cater.

Miss Lacey later became Mrs Marles when she married Robert Marles, a week after he was ordained and appointed as the minister of the Wickford Congregational Church in 1945.

Before this, Mr Marles had been pastor at the Ongar Congregational Church, before studying to become a minister for four years in Nottingham.

The couple spent nearly 13 years in Wickford where they both taught and encouraged young people to aim for the top, before setting up a junior church for children and a pioneer group for older youngsters.

For the next ten years, the pair lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and conducted their good work through the town's congregational church, until Mr Marles' death in 1967.

Mrs Marles went back to full-time teaching in Cranham and lived in Upminster until 1983 when she returned to what she had always regarded to be her 'home' in Ongar, near her sister Mollie.

She continued to play an active role in the Ongar United Reformed Church until she became ill a few months ago.

Friends, family and past pupils are expected to attend a service of thanksgiving at the United Reformed Church in Ongar High Street at 2pm on Monday, August 21.

Any donations received will be shared between the church and the War Memorial Hospital which cared so well for Mrs Marles in her last few weeks.