The wife of one of the UK’s biggest private landowners has died after having surgery to repair a hernia.

Lady Elizabeth Kerr, whose husband is Richard Scott, Duke of Buccleuch and Queensferry, is understood to have developed pneumonia after having an operation a week ago. She was 69 and the couple have four children.

The Duke, 69, is due to carry the Sceptre with Cross at the coronation of King Charles on Saturday at Westminster Abbey.  

The Sceptre was seen during Queen Elizabeth's funeral service and is meant to signify the crown's power and governance.

It has been used in the coronation of every British monarch since 1661, when it was created for the coronation of King Charles II.

The Duke of Buccleuch, a hereditary title dating to 1663, was once the UK’s largest private landowner, and the family still holds 217,000 acres of moorland, farms and forestry, and a £250m urban property portfolio.

The family’s homes include Bowhill House in Selkirk, Drumlanrig castle, an estate dating back to the reign of Robert the Bruce, and the Boughton estate in Northamptonshire. 

The title originally comes from a holding in the Scottish Borders, near Selkirk.

The duchess was the sister of Michael Ancram, who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2005