BARBARA Gray, who has died aged 88, was a major force in the Women’s Institute in Oxfordshire for more than 50 years.

She chaired many WI committees, as well as the Oxfordshire WI Federation, helped form at least 20 new branches in the county and received the MBE for her outstanding work.

Born Barbara Milner, she attended Summertown Primary School after moving to Oxford from Birmingham with her family at the age of six.

She read geography at University College, London, and gained teacher training qualifications at Liverpool University in 1954.

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By 1958, she was married to husband Alan and working as a teacher at St Juliana’s Convent, Begbroke.

A chance conversation led to her attending her first WI meeting at Begbroke in 1964.

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She later recalled: “The girl who lived opposite us went to the WI meetings, and one day she said ‘why don’t you come along?’. So I did.

“I liked meeting others from around the village. I enjoyed the companionship and all the fun we had. There were good talks and demonstrations, and I was really interested in cookery so the cookery classes at the WI really appealed to me.

“At my first meeting, I was asked what sort of activities I enjoyed. Being young and naive, I replied that I enjoyed doing everything.

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“Not long afterwards, I joined the committee and was made president. Then, while I was president, a letter arrived from the county branch saying they needed committee members, so that’s how I came to be involved at county level.”

Mrs Gray was a firm believer in the value of the WI and was one of the volunteers credited with reviving the organisation after a period of decline in the 1970s and 1980s when membership dropped sharply.

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As the WI celebrated its centenary in 2015, she said: “The WI gives women a chance to be themselves. When you come along, you aren’t there to act as anybody’s wife or mother. You are there for your own enjoyment, to make friends and have fun. I’m very proud of what the WI has to offer.”

She stepped down from her county roles that year, but continued as a member of Wolvercote WI.

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Mrs Gray, who also taught at Freeland Primary School and Manor Primary School at Long Hanborough, lived in Osberton Road, Summertown, Oxford. She leaves daughters Veronica and Lucy, twin sons James and Tim, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She had been a widow for 33 years.