Popular former Eastbourne teacher and mayoress passes away

A former school teacher and past mayoress of Eastbourne has passed away.
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Colette Cullen died on Tuesday November 17 following a long illness.

She was 91 and her family say she had been unwell for some time.

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Mrs Cullen had taught at many infant and primary schools across Eastbourne and East Sussex and – together with her husband Eastbourne mayor, borough council leader and Conservative councillor Dennis Cullen – was a popular civic dignitary in the town,

Mr and Mrs Cullen when they opened the Heritage Centre in Eastbourne in 1983Mr and Mrs Cullen when they opened the Heritage Centre in Eastbourne in 1983
Mr and Mrs Cullen when they opened the Heritage Centre in Eastbourne in 1983

Mrs Cullen was born in Forest Gate in 1929.

Her father worked for Barclay’s Bank’s French Desk and her mother was a teacher who taught among others a very young Vera Lynn.

She grew up in the Second World War years in Brighton and as a Catholic was educated by the Sisters of the Holy Sacrament.

After the war she trained as a teacher at La Saint Union in Southampton and taught at St Joseph’s in Brighton.

Mrs CullenMrs Cullen
Mrs Cullen
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She married Dennis Cullen in 1953 and the couple had two children, Desmond and Fiona.

From 1963 Mrs Cullen taught at St Philip’s Primary School in Uckfield and then from 1967 at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Eastbourne’s Whitley Road.

When the school moved to Tutts Barn Lane in the 1970s and re-opened as St Thomas a Beckett, Mrs Cullen continued as an infant teacher and later became deputy head – a post she held until her semi-retirement in 1983 when she became mayoress of Eastbourne when Mr Cullen was the mayor.

She continued supply teaching support for several years at schools throughout East Sussex until 1990.

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Mrs Cullen’s son Desmond said, “My mother was very popular across all the political parties in Eastbourne and taught so many in the town to read over the years.

“When she became mayoress she continued to work as a supply teacher across East Sussex infant and primary schools.”