My mother, Diana Edwardes, who has died aged 98, was the founder and director of the West Kent Youth Theatre, and taught English for many years at Tunbridge Wells girls’ grammar school.
She had started out on the London stage in the years after the second world war, having trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but working in the theatre became more challenging after she moved with her husband to Tonbridge in Kent. There she became involved in various amateur companies as well as directing two seasons for the professional Penguin Players in Tunbridge Wells.
