Yvonne Jackson

The daughter of a Birmingham businessman and manufacturer, Yvonne

Brenda Wilson went to Manchester University, her studies disrupted by the Second World War when she became an ambulance driver, the Coventry blitz being an especially testing time.

After the War, she married Edward Grosvenor Jackson (Ted), a Yorkshire mill owner who had served throughout the War in the RAF in the Far East fighting the Japanese.

Edward returned home as an active Wing Commander and although nearly six foot tall, weighed less than six stone as a result of contracting malaria and other tropical diseases.

After their marriage in 1948 and after Ted had regained some much-needed weight, they had three children, a daughter Susan and later twin boys Richard and Michael.

Despite having a young family, peace turned out to be just too peaceful for Yvonne. She played hockey and tennis for Yorkshire and became an almost obsessive rally driver, rallying many times in the RAC Rally of Great Britain and the Monte Carlo Rally with Sheila Van Damm. Together in the 1950s Sheila and Yvonne won the ladies' section of the Monte Carlo Rally three times.

Yvonne also competed in other alpine rallies, such as The Alpine and The Tulip, and won a number of British and Alpine trophies.

Later, she turned her mind and energies to the political arena.

She became a parish councillor for the village of Thorner and later a district councillor for Wetherby and then a county councillor for West Yorkshire. She progressed to become the leader of West Yorkshire County Council.

Amongst other achievements, she became chairman of West Yorkshire Police Committee and chairman of the Fire and Public Protection Committee and was appointed High Sheriff of West Yorkshire in 1986. She was also a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire.

Yvonne was a strong, feisty and fearless woman who might easily have been mistaken for a product of the region in which she made her home. She was awarded an OBE in 1980 for services to the community.

She is survived by her twin sons Richard and Michael (Susan pre-deceased her in 1997) and by eight grandchildren.