Matriarch and artist;

Born: October 9, 1910; Died: December 3, 2012.

AN APPRECIATION

right up until she died aged 102, Patricia Dundee remained alert and contemporary with an abiding interest in her 77 descendants by whom she was greatly loved and respected.

Born in Hertfordshire, Patricia Katherine was the third child of Marie (nee Edwards) and Colonel Lord Herbert Montague Douglas Scott, fifth son of the sixth Duke of Buccleuch. A founder member of the Irish Guards in 1900, Herbert Scott served in the First World War, after having been awarded the DSO in the South African war of 1899 to 1902. In the 1930s, as chairman of Rolls Royce, he encouraged the development of the Spitfire engine, later to become of key importance to the success of British air defence.

Marie, who is remembered for her good humour and independence of mind, was the niece of George Edwards, the famous musical theatre director who played a part in the rise of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Patricia had three happy marriages. However, over her long life she suffered much bereavement and sadness not least caused by the Second World War.

Her first husband, Lt Colonel WD (Faulks) Faulkner whom she married in 1931, was killed during the Norway campaign in April 1940, while commanding the first battalion of the Irish Guards.

Her second husband, Lt Colonel David Scrymgeour Wedderburn, who commanded the first battalion of the Scots Guards, died of wounds at Anzio in March 1944.

After the war, she married David's elder brother Jim Wedderburn (later 11th Earl of Dundee) who in the House of Commons in the 1930s had been Under Secretary of State for Scotland, and in Harold Macmillan's administration in the 1960s became deputy leader of the House of Lords and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

She was predeceased by him in 1983, as she also was 10 years later by her eldest son, Major David Faulkner (the Irish Guards) who aged 60 died of a heart attack.

Patricia Dundee was an accomplished artist. Many of her descendants follow suit. She combined the skills of a water colourist and photographer, demonstrated within albums started when she was 15, and continued without interruption for 87 years.

A brilliant conversationalist, she will be recalled for her calm and uniting influence of goodwill. She is survived by four of her five children.