Sylvia Nicholas, who survived the Swansea blitz and went on to pursue a teaching career in Inverness, has died aged 87.
She was a native Welsh speaker whose family home was bombed in 1940.
It was feared Sylvia, who was six at the time, had perished in the attack. She was found covered covered in glass and dust but recovered.
Evacuation
She was later evacuated to the comparative safety of her aunt’s home in Aberystwyth on the coast of Wales, where she completed her education.
Much later in life, Sylvia and her husband David, fell in love with the Highlands, and made the area their home.
Sylvia Hettie Nicholas was born in Swansea on June 2, 1934 to Horace and Anne Davies.
He father was a coal exporter and her mother was a dentist.
Teacher training
She completed her education at Ardwyn Grammmar School in Aberystwyth and then went on to study at teacher training college in Wrexham.
Her first teaching post was in a school in a Warwickshire village where a new coal mine had opened. The pupils were predominantly the children of Scots miners who had moved south.
In 1956, she married David Nicholas, a medic in the RAF, who she had met while living in Aberystwyth.
RAF Kinloss
The couple then embarked on a series of postings which would eventually lead them to RAF Kinloss.
They were based at the RAF station in Libya for two years, where son Gareth was born in 1958, before returning to south Wales then a further posting in London.
In 1968, David began work at RAF Kinloss and the couple’s daughter, Debbie was born at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, the following year.
Cold War
The family moved to Berlin in 1972 at the height of the Cold War and at a time when Second World War damage was still evident in the city.
Gareth said: “My parents loved their time at Kinloss and, in particular, my mother was impressed by the Scottish education system.
“They bought and house in Inverness and settled down in an area they loved after my father left the RAF.”
David began work in the medical records department at Raigmore Hospital, while Sylvia converted her teaching qualifications to meet Scottish requirements.
Lochardil primary
She joined the supply rota at Central and Drummond primary schools before becoming a full-time teacher at Lochardil school in Inverness, teaching mainly primary ones and twos from 1973 onwards.
Sylvia retired in 1993 and her husband, David, died the same year.
She was a keen badminton player, a member of the Church of Scotland Guild, a supporter of Inverness Toy Library, and, for many years volunteered at Inverness Music Festival.