Linda Middleton

Born in Hull, she was one of four children. Their father, Robert Best, was an engineer who believed in education for women. The family moved to Wakefield, and she went to Wakefield Girls' High School, leaving at 16.

When she was 20, she got a clerical job with the newly-created National Health Service, and one of her jobs there was to write to patients to check that they had not been charged for treatment.

She received replies from people who were so movingly grateful for the new service set up by the Labour government that she decided to join the Labour Party.

She married Arthur Lambert, one of her group of friends, and had two daughters, Susan Kerry and Jodie.

Following her divorce in 1956, Linda acquired a job as an unqualified teacher and worked in secondary modern schools in the Wakefield area, and then took a shortened two-year teacher-training course at James Graham College in Leeds.

With her new qualification, she joined the staff at the Cathedral School in Wakefield, teaching English and History, and filling in for teachers who were off, and dreading it when she had to take PE.

She was promoted to Senior Mistress – a deputy head in all but name.

In 1967, she moved with her two daughters to Cheltenham where she married Alan Middleton. She taught in an infants' school, which she did not enjoy, and later moved to a post at a further education college in Gloucester.

She was watching TV the night Michael Parkinson interviewed George Best, and she was so completely entranced by the player's dazzling skill that she decided there and then to watch football. However she felt she belonged to Leeds, and therefore chose to support Leeds United, particularly as none of the local teams were worth watching, in her view.

Her loyalty was immediate. She became a season ticket holder and watched every home match, catching the early-morning train from Gloucester so as to be at Elland Road for the 3pm kick off, and not getting back home until the early hours on Sunday morning.

When her marriage to Mr Middleton also came to an end, she moved back to Yorkshire, and started teaching at Eastmoor High School in Wakefield.

When daughter Jodie was 20, encouraged by Mrs Middleton, she too became a dedicated Leeds United supporter, and in 1975 mother and daughter went to the troubled European Cup Final in Paris when Leeds United was controversially beaten 2-0 by Bayern Munich.

Years later, when she was involved in making Citizenship Awards, she would address the new UK citizens (who had come from all over the world) and urge them to be really good citizens of the city of Leeds, and to support Leeds United.

Mrs Middleton never gave up on her team, and was ecstatic when it beat Manchester United in January in the third round of the FA Cup. The promotion to the Championship at the end of the season was another high point.

In 1981, she stood for Labour in Morley for the West Yorkshire County Council – and took her candidacy so seriously that she moved home to live in the town.

When the authority was abolished in 1986, the aptly-named Mrs Middleton was elected to represent the city's Middleton ward on Leeds City Council.

In her years as a councillor, she helped set up the South Leeds Family Learning Centre – of which she was immensely proud, and thanks to her Leeds United connection, she was able to persuade many footballers to give talks there.

She became Chair of Highways, and in 1997-8 served at the 104th Lord Mayor of Leeds, her Lady Mayoress being her late sister Kathleen, a former English Table Tennis champion.

Having met the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire during her time as Lord Mayor, she was invited to become a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

She was awarded the MBE in 2000 for her work in transport and also services to women. She retired from the council in 2003, but continued her involvement with the Primary Care Trust in South Leeds and her association as governor of local schools, including Rodillian School in Lofthouse, and Robin Hood School. She was subsequently made an Alderman of Leeds.

Dedicated, active, quick witted and humorous, Mrs Middleton had a mastery of English which made her public speaking fluent and

articulate, and often very funny – many of her speeches delivered without notes.

She loved people, and she especially loved children, a fact reflected in her choice of Child Line as her Lord Mayor's charity.

She is survived by her daughters Susan Kerry and Jodie, and by a granddaughter, Sian.