The Leamington resident, who celebrated her 100th birthday in November, died peacefully on January 4.

During her travels, which lasted from the 1930s to the 1970s, she worked on a radio station in Narobi that was the first to broadcast in Swahili.

While working at the station, she used her shorthand typing skills and gathered stories from international broadcasts and newspapers.

Mrs Hacking’s son-in-law, the Rev Jim Spence, paid tribute to her.

He said: “Grace was a one off. She faced many daunting things in her life but was able to carry on in spite of them.

“She retained a loyal interest in people right to the end and will be widely missed.”

Mrs Hacking was born in 1907 and grew up near Blackpool in Lancashire.

She then trained for church ministry,which included a year-long course in midwifery, before being posted to Kenya as a missionary with her husband Richard in 1935.

During their time living on the African nation’s northern frontier, they worked with mainly nomadic tribes and Mrs Hacking had to do her ante natal testing for her three pregnancies while being miles away from civilisation.

The outbreak of the Second World War delayed the couple’s return to the UK and Mr Hacking joined the army, while Mrs Hacking was evacuated to the Kenyan capital.

Mrs Hacking and her Husband returned to Britain in 1959 where he was the vicar of St Pancras church in Plymouth until his retirement in 1972.

Mr Hacking died in 1986, two years after the couple’s golden wedding anniversary. This led to Mrs Hacking moving to Chandos Court, in Chandos Street, in 2000.

Speaking on her last birthday, Mrs Hacking expressed her pride in having three children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild.

She said: “God keeps his promises.”