A FORMER Derby deputy head has died after a long illness.

Martin Jackson, 68, was deputy head at Alvaston and Boulton Junior School in the 1960s. He married wife Cynthia in 1968 and many of the children from the school sang at their wedding in Morley.

In 1969, at the age of 27, he left Derby to become the youngest head teacher in the UK, at a village school in Yorkshire. Ten years later he moved to become head of St Nicholas' Combined School in Kenilworth, where he set up a very successful unit for hard of hearing children.

Mr Jackson also helped to bring computing into Warwickshire primary schools.

During the time he spent studying to become a teacher in York, in the 1960s, his love of the theatre, music and the arts gave him the opportunity to act with Dame Judi Dench, Ian McShane, Peter Bowles and John Alderton. Mr Jackson retired from education in 1990 and, in 1994, settled back in Kenilworth.

Married to Cynthia for 41 years, the couple celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary in 2008.

A spokesman for Mr Jackson's family said: "They are aware that many people still living in and around Derby will have happy memories of Martin and the help and dedication he gave to teaching in the 1960s. He will be greatly missed by the many people whose lives he touched."

His funeral service in Kenilworth was attended by 300 people.

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