THE Hampshire peer who owns the Beaulieu Estate has penned an obituary for his mother following her death at the age of 90.
Lord Montagu has also released a series of pictures from the family archive of Belinda, Lady Montagu, a needlework expert who produced work for Queen Elizabeth II.
The first wife of Edward, Lord Montagu, she helped him create the National Motor Museum.
READ MORE: First wife of peer who created National Motor Museum dies aged 90
The Hon Ralph Montagu wrote that "her creativity and craftsmanship will live on, especially at Beaulieu where her work adds so much to the richness of the place".
Lady Montagu was born in 1932, daughter of the Hon. John de Bathe de Crossley, who died from TB when she was just three. Her first home was at Stone Farm on her grandfather’s estate at Cadland near Fawley, where she developed her lifelong love of riding. The family's next home overlooked the Darkwater River near Lepe.
Belinda’s schooling started in London but, at the outbreak of war in 1939, the school relocated to Wimborne.
Belinda witnessed the gathering of troops and landing craft at Lepe Beach in the run-up to D-Day, as well as the crash of a Junkers 188 near Exbury, which inspired Neville Shute’s novel Requiem for a Wren.
She showed considerable talent for drawing and painting from an early age and became a commercial artist after attending art school.
In 1959, Belinda married Edward, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, and joined her husband in running the family home, Palace House, as a visitor attraction. In the week before her wedding, she was at his side for the opening of the motor museum.
The renowned Beaulieu Jazz Festivals were in full swing at the time and Big Band leader Vic Lewis dedicated a number to her called Lady Belinda.
In 1961, she gave birth to Ralph, now 4th Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and, in 1964, Mary.
Lady Belinda adored her animals, not least her Arab stallion ‘Allah’ which she rode on the open forest with the New Forest Buck Hounds. She also kept bantams, forest ponies, cattle, Jacob sheep and was never without at least one pet in the house.
Throughout the 1960s, Lady Belinda designed souvenirs for the Beaulieu and Buckler’s Hard attractions.
She was always up for new challenges: everything from water skiing on the river to driving a steam-powered lawn mower at a rally.
Lady Belinda created the costumes for Beaulieu's medieval banquets and compiled and illustrated a book of old family recipes entitled To the Manor Born, which continues to be sold in the shop.
Belinda’s grandmother, Daisy Drummond, had been a highly respected dressmaker and this may have influenced Belinda’s decision, in 1972, to enrol at Southampton College of Art to study embroidery.
Having re-established herself back on the Cadland Estate, she enjoyed a prolific period of designing and making embroidered textiles.
Her first large work, telling the story of the New Forest, was commissioned to mark its ninth centenary and involved a team of 60 volunteers. The 28-foot-long embroidery, which took two years to complete, was viewed by Her Majesty The Queen and is on display in the New Forest Centre in Lyndhurst.
In 1986, Lady Belinda made a cushion for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother when she visited Winchester Cathedral.
By this time, Belinda had relocated to Longdown where she bought a farmhouse with direct access to the forest.
Belinda remained on good terms with her former husband and, in 1991, he commissioned her to produce a series of seven embroidered wall hangings depicting the history of Beaulieu Abbey from its foundation in 1204 to its dissolution in 1538. Her largest-ever undertaking, it took seven years to complete.
In 1997, Belinda made a new altar frontal and kneelers for the family’s private chapel at Buckler’s Hard to coincide with the wedding of her daughter Mary to Rupert Scott. A Royal commission followed in 1999, when The Queen asked her to make the kneelers for the wedding of HRH Prince Edward to Sophie Rhys-Jones. Other ecclesiastical work included kneelers for Salisbury Cathedral.
Belinda's adventures included walking across the Simpson Desert in South Australia and a pony trek over the Chilean Andes. She also joined a Pacific cruise on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth II liner, running embroidery workshops for passengers.
Lady Belinda served as President of the New Forest Association from 1983 to 1995 and then as its Patron until 2021. She was President of the New Forest Show in 1995.
A keen gardener, she was also President of the Southampton Horticultural Society.
Lady Belinda leaves her two children, two grandchildren, Benjamin and Emilia, and two New Forest ponies.
An exhibition, The Art of Lady Belinda, can be seen in Palace House.
There will be a private cremation, followed by a service of thanksgiving at a later date.
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