An innovative and popular headmistress, who was renowned for her stylish leadership qualities and a sparkling sense of humour, has died at the age of 87.

Patricia (Phillips) Caspari was the headmistress at Monmouth School for Girls for five years from 1981 to 1986.

A former vice-principal at Hereford Sixth Form College, Mrs Caspari was known as Mrs Phillips (née Sexton) when she arrived in Monmouth to succeed Miss Audrey Page’s 21-year tenure at the school.

After retirement, Mrs Caspari became an Ofsted inspector and lived in Cotheridge, Worcestershire.

The life of the former headmistress, who was educated at University College, Dublin and worked at Chase Secondary Modern School, Malvern and Ellerslie School for Girls, Malvern, will be celebrated this week.

Mrs Caspari will be remembered in a requiem mass at St George’s Catholic Church in Worcester on Friday (15th December) at 11am, followed by a private cremation.

In Paris, she met Bob Phillips, whom she married in 1951, and he later became a scientist at the Radar Research Establishment in Malvern, where he did distinguished and innovative work.

He died suddenly in 1979.

In 1983, while at Monmouth School for Girls, she married another scientist, Max Caspari, a widower with whose family she and Bob had become close friends when they spent four years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Both marriages were wonderfully happy. Mr Caspari died in 2001.

Miss Linda Wright, who taught Biology at Monmouth School for Girls for 34 years, remembers the former headmistress fondly as a visionary at Monmouth School for Girls.

“The changing of the guard came as something of a shock as the longstanding rules and rhythm of the school was disturbed by the arrival of this much younger visionary,” recalled Miss Wright.

Mrs Caspari spent the last few years of her life in a Malvern retirement home, Davenham. She is survived by two sons, Alex and Roger, and two daughters, Magda and Karen, from her first marriage, and eight grandchildren.