ONE of Bolton's longest ever serving headteachers, Kenneth Gibson, has died at the age of 87.

The former headteacher of Farnworth Grammar School collapsed while visiting Manchester Cathedral last week.

He led the school for 26 years and was at the helm in 1982 when it became defunct under a comprehensive overhaul of the education system.

Mr Gibson was known to thousands of local people, many of them pupils at the school during his headship.

He took up the post in 1956 and was a mentor to children and young teachers alike for two-and-a-half decades.

His own school days were at a spent in Hull, where he grew up. He went on to study classics at Durham University and became a classics master before joining the RAF in 1940.

After spending the Second World War fighting the Nazis in North Africa he taught at schools in Newport and Cheadle Hulme.

During his time at Farnworth he played a key role in encouraging local parents to send their daughters to sixth form college.

When the grammar school was getting ready to merge with Little Lever Secondary School in 1982 he paid tribute to his staff, who had stayed loyal with the merger hanging over their heads.

He said: "It is very much to the credit of the staff, that the uncertainty hanging over the school as a whole, and their own positions in particular, has not in any way affected their dedication and commitment."

The school was recording good exam results when the end finally came.

Mr Gibson devoted much of his retirement to his local church. He was a warden at St Peter's, Halliwell.