My grandmother, Pat Sterne, who has died aged 91, was a headteacher of special needs schools in Manchester and London, and later a dedicated Labour councillor in Chiswick, west London.
Pat was born in Birmingham, the elder daughter of Elsie (nee Rann), who worked at the Lucas Electrics factory, and John Cutler, an insurance agent. She recalled emerging from an air raid shelter to see the distant glow of bombing over Coventry and remembered her father returning injured from wartime service.
