A woman brought up in Huddersfield has died after a hugely-successful career protecting children.

Professor Freda Briggs, who was based at the University of South Australia, has died at the age of 85.

She was honoured countless times for her work as a researcher and educator and a champion and protector of all children, but especially vulnerable children, and was described as “an inspiration.”

University Vice Chancellor Prof David Lloyd said she had been a role model in the field of child development. “Her passion and determination for her work was always unbridled. She was indefatigable.”

Mrs Briggs - who become only the second woman to be named Senior Australian of The Year - was born Freda Akeroyd in 1930 in Huddersfield.

She had one brother, nine years her junior. She attended Deighton Council School and Royds Hall School.

She worked briefly as an office clerk at the then ICI plant in Huddersfield before joining the London Metropolitan Police, working in child protection. She said in 2007 that she joined the police after seeing an ad in a local paper seeking female police recruits noting that it offered free accomodation and food.

In 1963, Briggs starting studying by correspondence, eventually completing a teacher training course at Warwick University. She worked as a teacher and social worker in Derbyshire for six years, completed a graduate degree in Education and postgraduate qualifications in psychology and sociology at the University of Sheffield and became a lecturer in child development.

She emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1975 to start work in childhood studies.

She became Dean of the Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies in Adelaide in 1980 and established a world first multi-professional course in child protection, assisting universities in the US, Hamburg and Brazil to create similar courses.

In 1998, she was the inaugural recipient of the Australian Humanitarian Award, but many more were to follow. In 2000, she was the first woman and only the second person to be appointed Senior Australian of the Year for her pioneering work for child protection education and the protection of children.

She married Kenneth Briggs in 1952 and had two chidlren, as well as being a foster carer.