In her later years, she was a member of various quangos which included the Home Office Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs and served on the executive council of the Teacher Training Agency.
The remainder of Kilpatrick's working life was spent on or near the South Coast of England but did not lose her northern accent.
[1] She later moved to Portsmouth where she was made the deputy headteacher of the King Richard School in the city's Paulsgrove district.
[3] She supported single-sex education and scorned suggestions that children are less socially developed by going to a same-sex school.
[1] In June that year, Kilpatrick became the second teacher to become a dame in the Queen's Birthday's Honours list for "services to education".
Additionally, the school trained current and prospective middle managers and classroom assistants who were among the non-teaching staff involved in this scheme.
[1] Kilpatrick was a member of various quangos: she joined the Home Office advisory committee on the misuse on drugs in March 2002,[3] and was appointed to the executive council of the Teacher Training Agency four months later.
[2] Acting as the director of a teacher training session at the start of the autumn term of the 2002/2003 school year on 5 September, she collapsed mid-sentence as a result of a ruptured thoracic aneurysm.
[1] Kilpatrick never regained consciousness,[2] and died that same day at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth in spite of not having any previous illnesses.