A much-loved award-winning teacher has died suddenly while returning from a history trip to Germany and Poland.

Colm Murphy, from St John's Catholic Comprehensive School in Gravesend, died this morning whilst heading home from the school trip to Berlin and Krakow.

The teacher, who received the Kent Teacher of the Year Award in 2016 as well as numerous other accolades during his career, also led a static bicycle challenge to honour war heroes, where students cycled a distance equivalent to going from Gravesend to Ypres, Belgium.

Mr Murphy, together with his students, also attended a service in Westminster Abbey alongside the late Queen Elizabeth II to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in 2016.

He was also involved with the Gravesend History Society and in 2017 took part in the group's project launching a series of books.

St John's paid tributes to the beloved teacher with a banner in their website, as well as a statement from the school's headmaster, Matt Barron.

He said: "It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the sudden death of Mr Colm Murphy, a highly-respected and much-loved member of our teaching staff and a long-serving stalwart of the history department.

"Mr Murphy died suddenly this morning whilst returning from the school’s history trip to Berlin and Krakow.

"Mr Murphy’s wife, Catherine Murphy, was with him and on behalf of the school, we have expressed to her our deepest sorrow and sympathy.

"I hope in the weeks to come, we will find an appropriate way to celebrate Mr Murphy’s life and the significant contribution that he has made to St John’s and the wider community.

"When we return after half-term, the school chapel will be available for quiet reflection.

"The school will be doing all it can to ensure that support is there for all who need it: for any student who was on the trip or who is particularly affected by this tragic news, we will ensure that additional support is in place on their return.

"Please keep Mr Murphy’s family, all those who were on the trip, and the entire St John’s family in your thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time."

Gravesend historian Christoph Bull praised Mr Murphy for his unique teaching style and imagination.

He said: "Colm was unique in being a history teacher with passion and imagination. The books on the local war dead from WWI are a huge benefit to the local history world.

"Being imaginative, and not stuck in the British only version of history, Colm had asked me over many years to attend the History Days and talk to the pupils in class, and altogether in the hall, about how WWI affected the other side of the trench wire – the Germans and the Central Powers.

"Colm encouraged this approach as a way of making young people think, rather than filling their heads with clichés.

"He was such an approachable person and so keen to teach history in a way that made sense to young people he was a truly remarkable man and teacher-and his loss is as massive as it was unexpected.

"A gaping hole has been left for Colm’s family, St John’s School and the rest of us who believe in and love true history. We have been robbed, far too early, of a great man."