Journalist, environmentalist and former wife of the 15th Duke of Hamilton

Born: January 30 1940;

Died: April 22 2018

JILL, Duchess of Hamilton, who has died aged 78, was a determined journalist and academic with a keen interest in the environment. As a campaigning journalist, she wrote for many years on Jerusalem and the Middle East in The Catholic Herald, and in her last years wrote her PhD at the School of Oriental & African Studies on Patriarchy, the Dark Side of Legal Pluralism.

An Australian by birth, the Duchess had came to London as a young reporter and later married Scotland’s premier Duke, Angus Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 15th Duke of Hamilton in 1988. She remained proud of her Australian origins and was known back home as "Australia’s only Duchess".

Jillian Robertson was born in Sydney but brought up in Queensland, the daughter of Noel Robertson a First World War veteran. In 1961 she trained as a newspaper reporter and was sent to London to work for the Murdoch papers on Fleet Street. She filed reports from all over the world and interviewed such celebrities as the Dalai Lama, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and P?G Wodehouse.

The Duchess was despatched on several hazardous missions – notably to war-torn Vietnam and gave a graphic account of a strike mission she flew with the US 8th Bomb Squadron carrying Napalm gas. In 1963, she attended a dinner for President Kennedy in Miami four nights before he was assassinated in Dallas.

Two years later, she returned to Vietnam, and was one of the first women to write about the effects of the bombing raids launched from Danang, the top secret centre where the US stockpiled its most deadly bombs.

The Duchess was firmly set on a career in journalism when she became involved with a colleague Martin Page. They married after finding out she was pregnant but the marriage was short-lived - their son, Jamie was born in 1968. The Duchess’s second marriage to Edward Hulton, a member of the wealthy Hulton Publishing empire, was also unsuccessful.

In the late 1980s she was writing a book on Napoleon when she met Angus, 15th Duke of Hamilton at Lennoxlove. They married in 1988 and she became involved in the family’s ancient history and the running of its affairs. The title dated from 1643 and its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland and the Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The Duchess was his second wife and they shared a passion for the protection of distressed animals, the countryside and preservation of the estate at Lennoxlove. The marriage faced certain domestic problems and ended in 1995.

Styling herself Jill, Duchess of Hamilton she returned to journalism and writing. She lived in Chelsea and wrote several acclaimed books of which Marengo, the Myth of Napoleon’s Horse was a best seller. Her research on the history of the white horse that carried the Emperor to Moscow and back was comprehensive. The Times wrote, "Jill Hamilton has done some wonderful detective work, and written a gem of a book."

She also wrote a stirring account (First to Damascus) which told of her father’s wartime experiences in the Australian Light Horse in 1918 when the battalion liberated Damascus.

Her passion for the environment was further seen when she published Scottish Plants for Scottish Gardens, in which she inspired gardeners to discover native flowers, trees and shrubs - thereby preserving an important and often neglected area of Scotland's flora and fauna. With much clarity she gave advice as to which native species in Scotland were suitable for shade, rock garden, herbaceous borders and ponds. Magnus Magnusson wrote, "A book which is long overdue ... intriguing, helpful and utterly compelling."

Her concern to preserve Scotland’s natural habitat was further witnessed in 1997 when the journalist Clare Henry interviewed the Duchess for The Herald about the preservation of heathers, butterflies and bees. “Over breakfast at the Chelsea Arts Club,” Ms Henry wrote, “Jill, Duchess of Hamilton lectures me on the need to grow native plants. Did I know what plants were best for my Glasgow garden?’” The Duchess told her, “If you live in Glasgow's West End dog violet, lady's bedstraw, and meadow cranesbill were native.”

In 1995, she organised the creation of an Australian War Memorial at Battersea Park made from Bondi sandstone. A dawn service was held on Anzac Day which has become a fixture in the Australian calendar in London: it was held yesterday morning as the sun rose over Hyde Park where the service is now held. In 1997 the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard made a speech thanking the Duchess for bringing the Australian custom of the dawn service to England.

The Duchess served as a vice-president of both the Butterfly Conservation and of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She often exhibited and won medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Her last years were spent in Oxford but for many years she lived between Chelsea and her house on Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

As she became recognised as an author she dropped the rather cumbersome title her divorce had given her and suggested her byline should be simplified to Jill Hamilton. She was once asked the correct means of addressing her and she replied: “I have absolutely no bloody idea, and please don’t tell me.”

Jill, Duchess of Hamilton is survived by her son Jamie.

ALASDAIR STEVEN