Doris Cholmondeley Webster, a Founding member of the Bermuda Industrial Union, has died at the age of 105.

Mrs Webster was born in 1909, the daughter of Henry and Mary Douglas.

While she was forced to give up on education at the age of 15 when her father was blinded in an accident, she helped her parents raise her siblings and became a skilled cook.

During the Second World War, she found work at the US Naval Base, sewing parachutes for the soldiers. While working there, she grew increasingly aware of the unfair work practices on the Island and became a founding member of the Bermuda Workers Association.

She served as the group’s first secretary and was one of less than a half dozen women who signed a historic petition by Dr EF Gordon calling for a Royal Commission on conditions on the Island.

In 1946, Mrs Webster became a founding member of the BIU.

She later left the Island, living in the United States until she died in St Louis, Missouri, on January 19.

She is survived by two daughters, Vivienne and Madge, sisters Maude and Elie, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.