A YORK woman killed in the Jordan bus crash was described as "a person of total integrity and loyalty" at her funeral service.

Mourners at Heworth Methodist Church heard yesterday that seasoned traveller Hilda Brisby, 80, known to friends and family as Topsy, had a sense of adventure that took her around the world, to places such as Antarctica, Greenland, Uzbekistan, India and South America.

It was during one of her adventures abroad, a Christian pilgrimage to Jordan last month, that the tragic accident happened.

The Rev Isabel Stuart, who led the funeral service with lay minister Jenny Powley, told the congregation that Miss Brisby had "died doing something she loved. She had longed to visit Petra and has done so.

"Topsy was a woman of character and substance, friendly and forthright with a great sense of humour."

Miss Stuart also recalled how Miss Brisby taught at Sunday School in Stamford Bridge, where she lived for many years, and had been involved in pastoral care within the church community in Heworth. Mrs Powley read an address on behalf of Miss Brisby's family, which included her brother, Ron, and sister-in-law, Dorothy.

She said: "Many things come to mind. Her, sometimes outlandish, sense of humour, the disciplines she imposed upon herself and occasionally others. She always called a spade a spade - some would say that was an understatement.

"A person of total integrity and loyalty, she offered herself generously and unselfishly in service to others."

She continued: "The quality that impressed above all, however, was the courage which to a large degree I believe underpinned her other attributes and aspirations.

"This courage, allied to a seemingly unquenchable thirst for adventure, fashioned her into the seasoned traveller that she was."

Miss Brisby, a former secretary at Nestl, was among nine Britons killed in the accident, which happened when a tyre on the bus the group was travelling in burst, forcing the vehicle into the path of an oncoming truck.

Owen and Jean Dale, 66 and 63, of Dunnington, and Margaret Haslam, 70, of York, were also among those killed.

Updated: 10:15 Thursday, November 18, 2004