Dr Hannah Stirling

Born: September 27, 1914; Died: November 9, 2014.

Hannah Stirling, who has died aged 100, was a woman of vision and determination whose crusade to protect Loch Lomond 40 years ago would put today's digital campaigns in the shade.

Using the age-old method of a letter to The Glasgow Herald, she garnered a following of 200,000, supporting her opposition to a proposed major hydro electric dam scheme on the eastern shores of Loch Lomond.

Its construction would have scarred the beautiful vista of Ben Lomond with power lines scything across the slopes, a storage reservoir and construction roads blighting the landscape. She and her friend Josephine Colquhoun resolved "to do something about it" and their passion for the cause was the genesis of the Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.

Within a few months a public ­meeting elected the organisation's first council, charged with creating a group that would give voice to those who supported the preservation of the area's natural beauty. The initiative quickly attracted worldwide membership, the proposal for the Craigroystan pumped storage scheme was shelved and subsequently the charity played an important role in the campaign to create Scotland's first National Park.

Mrs Stirling, a pensioner and former Second World War Wren, served as chairman of the Friends, was later made an MBE and became the first British citizen to be awarded the Europa Nostra Award for her outstanding conservation work.

She had needed nothing more than the spectacular view from her window overlooking the loch to galvanise her into action. It was a simply a matter worth fighting for.

Born in the West End of Glasgow in the opening months of the First World War, she was the eldest of three children and grew up in Helensburgh from the age of seven. She was the only day pupil at the former St Bride's Girls School, now Lomond School, and nursed her mother for several years until her death when young Hannah was just 17.

The teenager, who also helped to raise her younger brother and sister, then attended commercial college in Glasgow before putting her secretarial skills to good use in her father's solicitor's firm.

She joined the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War and worked at the War Office's Censor Office in Glasgow editing letters to ensure no sailors divulged sensitive details of shipping routes in mail to their loved ones. She also served in Inveraray, Troon and Dunoon.

Engaged in 1941, her fiance Bill was a fleet surgeon and they finally married in 1945. She left the Wrens the following year and accompanied her new groom on a surgical tour of America, during which she attended a function at the White House in Washington where she saw General Dwight Eisenhower, formerly Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. She also met pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King at a White House garden party, before his famous I Have A Dream speech.

She subsequently travelled widely - to destinations including Japan, China and India - and she and her husband lived in Glasgow's West End for a while before buying their home Auchendarroch on Loch Lomondside, in 1965.

It was after living there for more than 20 years that the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board's plans sparked publication of her letter, in the spring of 1978, in The Glasgow Herald. She invited opponents of the scheme to get in touch and the protest quickly gained momentum. A constitution was drafted and the Friends of Loch Lomond, an independent conservation charity, was formed in Balloch that October. A petition against the board's proposal attracted an astonishing 200,000 signatories and the scheme was eventually scrapped.

Following their victory the Friends continued to promote and protect the area. When the Forestry Commission announced plans to sell Ben Lomond, the charity leapt into action with another campaign and the iconic peak was bought by the National Trust for Scotland. They also lobbied for the creation of Scotland's first national park, which finally came into being in 2002, made their views known on various planning issues and took the lead in practical improvements to enhance the area's natural and cultural heritage.

Now known as The Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, the charity's work extends right across Loch Lomond, The Trossachs, Breadalbane and the Argyll Forest Park.

Mrs Stirling, a feisty and enthusiastic chairman who had the knack of encouraging, without directing, others, was honoured with a Queen Mother's Birthday award in 1983 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Strathclyde in 1993. She was immensely proud to be made an MBE the following year when the band struck up The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond as she received the award from the Queen.

As her campaigning continued, the accolades did too and in 1996 she received the Europa Nostra award. She also returned to America, on a coast-to-coast tour as an ambassador for the Friends of Loch Lomond, where she attended the Stone Mountain Highland Games in Georgia and was guest of honour at a lunch at Washington's National Geographic Society building. Over the decades she remained intensely interested in the park and the welfare of people in the area, particularly the younger generation. She continued to keep her finger on the pulse and was ready to stand by with advice and to contribute generously to ensure things went smoothly.

Widowed some years ago, latterly she was president of the Friends and was thrilled when, to mark her 100th birthday in September, they teamed up with boat operator Cruise Loch Lomond to launch a passenger vessel bearing her name, the MV Lomond Hannah, that will allow many more visitors from home and abroad to enjoy the beautiful vistas she did so much to protect.

It was the perfect tribute to the woman known as The Queen of Loch Lomond.