Patricia Knight

My mother Patricia Knight, who has died of cancer aged 64, was a peripatetic RAF wife. She was also a woman who contributed a great deal to north Devon where, in 1996, she created the Mortehoe Heritage Centre. The village of Mortehoe had become her lifelong home, despite the itinerant forces life, after she first moved there with her parents half a century ago.

Patricia wanted to present not just the formal and natural history of the area, but also to preserve the recollections of some of Mortehoe's characters. She worked tirelessly to raise funds and enlisted the support of the community. To our delight the centre remains popular to this day.

Patricia was born in Croydon, south London, during the second world war. Her father Tom fought at Dunkirk and in Burma. Her mother Joan's role was to look for unexploded ordnance during air raids. After the war Tom worked in advertising and, in 1958, moved the family to Mortehoe.

Patricia joined the WRAF in 1962 as an 18-year-old officer cadet, becoming personal assistant to an air marshal. There she met Michael, a fighter pilot, and in 1967 they married. In those days, to Patricia's enduring irritation, married women had to leave the service. But her experience did prove useful - Michael himself became an air marshal.

Patricia remained supportive but fiercely independent. It was her own brand of feminism; always believing that she could do whatever she liked - and do it as well as any man. Her character shone through in the dignity with which she faced the illness from which she knew she could not recover. When, in her last days, she fought and fought, no one was surprised.

In dispensing advice to her children, Patricia said we should listen because she was "always right". Looking back, I see that invariably she was. She is survived by Michael, her children Gillian, Lisa and myself, and granddaughters Katie, Lauren and Alex.

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