Bucks Herald village columnist, grandmother and community champion passes away at 83

A long-serving Bucks Herald columnist who took a keen interest in her community died aged 83.

Monica Dunton passed away on 8 September her family have confirmed.

She had lived in Ford for approximately 30 years and for many of those she wrote for The Bucks Herald as a village correspondent.

Monica recorded the goings on from meetings and social events and fed back business information from the Ford and Dinton area.

Chloe Lambert, who is the Haddenham correspondent for The Bucks Herald, said Monica would be sorely missed.

At the most recent Dinton with Ford and Upton Parish Council meeting Chairman, Councillor Dick O’Driscoll, opened the meeting by paying tribute to Monica.

Monica was described as a private person, with strong values, to whom religion played a key role in shaping her life.

She was a devout Catholic, who was keen to play an active part in the goings on at her local church, no matter where she was based.

The retired grandmother was known to like her dogs, horses and vegetables.

Her daughter, Teresa Brown, jokes that the family did not adhere to the recommended five-a-day – as they typically ate 10 vegetables on a daily basis!

Prior to retirement she worked as a secretary and taught knitting to adults via over 18 education schemes. Right up until her death she enjoyed knitting for people.

Whether that was sending hats to the Seafarers group near her daughter Teresa’s home in Grimsby, or to homeless charities in London.

Unsurprisingly for a long-term newspaper contributor Monica was said to be a stickler for punctuation.

"Once I brought one of my boys’ school reports to show her, and the report was alright, but she didn’t comment on that. Because there was a spelling mistake in the middle of it, that was what she focused on,” said Teresa.

"She was like ‘you should tell the school’, that’s what bothered her more she was all about proper English and proper talking. And now I have a northern accent, she’s never liked that.”

Monica is survived by her daughter and son, Father Thomas Dunton, and three grandchildren, Michael, 21, Johnathan, 17, and Corey, 16.