TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular teacher and charity volunteer.

Hazel Biggs was a domestic science teacher at Dorothy Stringer school in Brighton for 17 years.

She has died at the age of 104.

Having gained the rare honour of being a woman granted a scholarship to train at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, Mrs Biggs taught at the secondary school in 1953.

When the mother of five boys retired in 1973, she became a familiar face volunteering at the Oxfam shop in North Street.

Her eldest son Graham said: “Mum had a full and interesting life

“Mum was proud of her Caribbean family.

“She will be remembered for her lifelong opposition to racism and xenophobia.

“She believed in justice and education for all, not just the privileged few.

“Mum’s positive influence will last for generations to come.

“She gained a scholarship and grant to do the Cordon Bleu in Paris which she passed in 1934.

“She was a woman in man’s world in the 1930s which was an achievement indeed.”

Mrs Biggs and husband John moved to Brighton when he became head of graphic design at Brighton College.

When they divorced in 1966 she moved just a few doors down in Stanford Avenue.

She later moved back to spend his last years with him at the family home until he died from a stroke in 1988.

During her career she gained numerous honours including prizes for papers written on home economics which were published in The Times and education journals.

Mrs Biggs finally moved away from the city in 1992 to live with son Martin.

She passed away in July at the Willowbrook care home in Seaton, Devon, where she spent the final years of her long and fulfilling life.

Graham added: “She had many birthday parties to remember and always said ‘No presents, just cat food’.

“She enjoyed her 100th with the Queen’s letter and always celebrated with many members of the family and lifelong friends coming and enjoying her company.”

A grandmother and great-grandmother Mrs Biggs leaves four of her sons, Graham, Peter, Martin and Adrian, and a great number of friends.

She was also fascinated by researching her rich family history – including visiting family in Trinidad.

Mrs Biggs was born in Edinburgh in 1913 when her father was a medical student and her mother a private nurse.

Even from a young age she showed her tender nature.

She served miners in the soup kitchen during the general strike while her father was the pit doctor in a Welsh mining village.