Former magistrate who founded girl guides groups and laid groundwork for Brexit dies aged 91

Anne Palmer was well known figure in Wolverhampton as she was Littlewoods first manageress and ran her own hairdressing business in Wednesfield in the 1960s.

Born in Manchester in 1930 she moved to Featherstone after her house was bombed in World War Two and remained in the Black Country for the rest of her life.

She married her husband Ken in 1950 and went on to have two sons, six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

She was an early advocate of leaving the European Union frequently describing Britain being 'locked in a dying institution'. She was a voracious writer of letters to the Express and Star and was an early supporter of the UK Independence Party.

She was a familiar figure in the justice system sitting as a magistrate dispensing justice to those who appeared before her.

Her son Philip said: "She did a lot in her life and was well known in Wolverhampton as the manageress of Littlewoods and as a magistrate.

"During these years she formed Essington Girl Guides then a Guide group in Featherstone. She produced pantomimes with the Guides and played the piano for the musical numbers."

He added: "She appeared in the Express and Star a lot as she was always writing letters, she would often write to prime ministers and helped Derek Bennett in his attempt to charge Tony Blair for treason.

"When she decided to do something she would go all in and was an incredible researcher in her own right."

In the 2000s Mrs Palmer spent a lot of time working with The Freedom Association helping critique Government legislation and trying to prove EU treaties should no determine law in the UK.

In 2012 the retired magistrate gave evidence to the House of Commons as part of a Foreign Office inquiry into the Commonwealth, an institution she loved dearly.

She told Parliament: "Not far from where I live are some of the graves of those Commonwealth Forces that gave their lives for us. Where we can go at times, and remember the sacrifice they made for us.

"They gave their lives so that all of YOU in that magnificent building could continue to govern this country according to its 600 year old Common Law Constitution, for that is the only lawful Constitutional foundation other new laws can legally/lawfully be built upon.

"That is what our Members of the Commonwealth fought for; that no British person could or would allow a foreigner to ever set aside our own Constitution for any of their foreign laws."