Keynsham woman who worked in Africa dies

A woman who worked in Zambia as part of a link up with Keynsham’s St John’s Church has died aged 76 after a long illness.

Sheila Bennett’s husband Roy was a verger at the parish church and they both made trips to the village of  Fiwila in Zambia. After Roy died in 1999 Sheila decided she wanted to spend more time there. She managed to get a teaching post through the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) at a school in Mapanza, southern Zambia, but after three years, she started to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

She returned to her home in Keynsham but later moved to live nearer one of her daughters in St George, Bristol.

Mrs Bennett had previously been a maths teacher at Writhlington School in Radstock for 20 years.

She leaves three children and four grandchildren.

Her funeral will be held at St Ambrose parish church, Whitehall, Bristol, on April 9, starting at 11.30am.