A POPULAR teacher and former soldier who was taken prisoner twice during the Second World War has died, aged 94.

Don Skitmore was a Clacton teacher for 35 years. He started at Clacton Secondary School in 1948 and became head of English, and was later head of the upper school after it became Colbayns Comprehensive.

Born in Sudbury, he fought with the Middlesex Yeomanry during the Second WorldWar. He was captured in north Africa in 1941 and taken to a PoW camp in Italy.

After the war he served with the Royal Army Educational Corps before deciding to go into teaching. He met wife Valerie, who was a 20-year-old home economics teacher, at Clacton Secondary School, and the couple married in 1951.

They lived in a flat in Harold Road before moving to Marine Gardens in Holland-on-Sea.

Mr Skitmore taught thousands of youngsters over his long career, before retiring in 1983.

Former pupils include a retired High Court judge and Lord Steve Bassam, who grew up in Great Bentley and went to Clacton Secondary Modern School from 1964 to 1971.

Mr Skitmore started the school’s first library and when a new library was opened at Colbayns it was named after him. He also served as chairman of the Round Table and Clacton Probus Club, and was a founder member of the Dedham 41 Club. He died of old age on November 22.

“Don was very well known in the town and extremely well regarded,” said Valerie Skitmore.

“So many pupils were taught by my husband. The thing people say most on the sympathy cards is what a gentleman he was, and that is perfectly true.”