The widow of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, who worked as a teacher in St Albans, has died aged 79.

Lady Rosalind Runcie lived in St Albans with her late husband Lord Robert Runcie, who was the Bishop of St Albans between 1970 and 1980, passed away on Thursday, January 12.

The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, paid the following tribute to Lady Runcie.

He said: “Lady Runcie was enormous fun, with a fund of stories and anecdotes.

"Playing piano duets with Lindy was one of the unexpected bonuses of coming to the Diocese of St Albans.

"I also discovered the extent of the network of her friendships one evening when she came to dinner.

"Not only did she already know most of my guests, but she even knew the Italian archbishop who had flown in that morning and was staying with me.

“Despite living in the grandeur of Lambeth Palace and mixing with the great and the good, she was allergic to pretension and pomposity.

"She kept her feet firmly on the ground, saying that one of the gifts of teaching children to play the piano is that they were not interested in who she was, just whether she could teach well."

The talented pianist and keen gardener worked as a piano teacher at St Albans High School for Girls between 1991 and 2011, and she also worked at St Albans School.

Alison Gavin, marketing co-ordinator at the school, said: “Lady Runcie will be fondly remembered by staff and students at both schools.”

Lord and Lady Runcie’s granddaughter also attended the school and she made head girl in 2006.

The two schools are dedicating a performance of one her favourite songs, the Mozart Requiem, to their former teacher at their annual joint concert on Wednesday, March 21.

Canon Tony Hurle, vicar of St Paul’s Church in St Albans, said: “Lindy was a delightful lady who, while worshipping at the Abbey, always took an interest in St Paul’s and how we were faring, and was very generous to my wife and I.

“She provided tremendous support to her husband Robert, both as Bishop of St Albans and as Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as having a considerable ministry in her own right.

“She was much loved and will be very much missed.”

Lady Runcie is survived by her two children, James and Rebecca.