TRIBUTES have been paid to a social worker and professional whose passion for the career was ignited by a stay on Portland.

Bridget Ogden, who died recently aged 86, was a mentor and inspiration to hundreds of college students with whom she worked with in social care.

Brought up in East Anglia, Bridget joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War Two and friends say that she remembered being billeted to stay with a family on Portland very fondly.

Friends have suggested that this experience sparked Bridget’s passion for social care. She later read English at Nottingham University and became a childcare officer working on the Isle of Wight and in Hampshire.

She eventually became area director for West Sussex.

Friends described her as compassionate but tough-minded but her greatest passion was working to help children and families. She kept in touch with many young people that she had supervised.

Outside of work Bridget had a wide variety of interests including the natural world, music and local history, particularly genealogy. She was also a member of a choir.

One friend said: “She was one of those people who was interested in everything, with endless curiosity, and that thirst for new experi-ences ensured that she was vivacious to the end.”