AN Upper Wharfedale resident who created Scotland’s only dedicated dried flower garden has passed away at the age of 102.

Evelyn ‘Bettina’ Thomson, of Conistone, died peacefully in her sleep on May 26.

Bettina, who was born in Edinburgh on January 1, 1915, and her younger sister Jean were orphaned when their father was lost at sea during the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Lt Commander David Douglas was third in command of HMS Black Prince when the armoured cruiser was surprised in the dark by six German battleships and sunk with the loss of 857 lives.

Her mother Frances, from the famous Stevenson family of engineers and lighthouse builders which included the celebrated author Robert Louis Stevenson, was a talented painter who spent time in France with renowned Scottish artist Anne Redpath OBE.

Bettina’s earliest childhood memories were of staying with her grandparents at North Berwick on the east coast of Scotland. She was happy there and returned to the small East Lothian town annually for the rest of her life.

When the town’s museum, which was established by her stepfather James Richardson, closed she campaigned tirelessly for its reopening, which finally happened in 2014.

Bettina married Sir Douglas Thomson in 1935 when she was 20.

Her husband was MP for South Aberdeen and owner of the Edinburgh shipping firm Ben Line, at that time one of the oldest shipping companies in the world in continuous private ownership.

Bettina launched several ships including the 7,804-tonne Benlawers. The nature of the business meant they travelled extensively, which often meant months away from home.

They moved to Peeblesshire in the Scottish Borders in 1944 and raised a family of five children there. She was a keen horsewoman who once rode across Scotland and hunted regularly with the Lauderdale.

Lady Thomson spent the next six decades living on the Scottish Borders and was the driving force behind the development of Priorwood Garden in Melrose, which showcased her lifelong passion for dried flowers.

She took a dried flower garden to the Royal Chelsea Flower Show and her fundraising for the National Trust earned her a special award in 1984.

After the loss of her husband to cancer, she continued to travel well into her 70s.

She had a life-long interest in family history, and at the age of 82 she published a book about her ancestors – who included an Arctic explorer, a war hero and an admiral who founded the modern Japanese navy.

She always felt great pride in her forbears and visited Canada to see where her great grandfather tackled a huge cholera epidemic, ensuring a headstone was erected over his unmarked grave.

She spent the last decade of her life living with her daughter in Conistone, where she celebrated her 100th birthday in January 2015.

She was an inveterate letter writer who enjoyed cryptic crosswords, cream teas from Betty’s of Harrogate and swore to the beneficial effects of a daily glass of sweet sherry.

She was characterised by her boundless curiosity, unflappable stoicism and iron will.

Bettina is survived by five children, 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

There will be a funeral service at St Mary’s Church in Conistone at noon tomorrow.