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Under the Londonderry coat of arms which surmounted the entrance to St Mark’s Parish Church, Newtownards, people representing many sections of the community walked, during this week in 1959, to join in a final tribute to the memory of the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, whose family had been mainly responsible for the building of the church.

Well-known public personalities, representatives of the government, workers from the Londonderry estate at Mount Stewart, and members of the general public formed the congregation at a memorial service at which the Right Reverend F J Mitchell, Bishop of Down and Dromore, spoke of Lady Londonderry’s interest in the church, in the people around her and, above all, in her lovely home and gardens at Mount Stewart.

Of the gardens, which were her chief interest since the death of her husband some years ago, the Bishop said: “Like Sir Christopher Wren, she unconsciously created her own. abiding memorial, and thousands of people who find pleasure in leaving an overcrowded city to spend an hour or two of happiness and contentment amid a profusion of beauty, will be in the garden that once was hers.”

The Londonderry family was represented at the service by the Marchioness Dowager’s daughter, Viscountess Bury, who was accompanied by her daughters, the Honourable Elizabeth and Rose Keppel.

The Governor was present, with Lady Wakehurst, and the Prime Minister was represented by Mr Terence O’Neill, Minister of Finance.

The service was conducted by the Reverend R J Chisholm, the rector, assisted by the Reverend J C Bell, and the Reverend Canon P R Cosgrave, chaplain to the marchioness, also took part.

In his sermon the bishop said that the marchioness had been known in Northern Ireland as a woman of high “intelligence and social brilliance”, and a devoted wife and mother.

“Mount Stewart was not for her merely a place for sport and entertainment,” he said, “The country of her adoption came at the end to be the place on which, above all, she bestowed her personal labour, and for it she had the greatest affection. What greater memorial could anyone have than the glorious gardens at Mount Stewart?”

He added: “Though she moved in high places, the marchioness was sincerely concerned with the things of the spirit, and was always ready to assist in promoting the cause of the church.

“Many Christian communions have benefited from the generosity of the Londonderry family. The family coat of arms over the main door of this church is a reminder to us that it was owing to the generosity of the family that we have the church in which we are meeting today.”

The Bishop said that although people of high position were often used as objects of criticism, in the case of the marchioness criticism was singularly absent.

“A gracious lady has passed from our midst,” he added. “She has left with us very real feelings of respect for her memory.”

Memorial service is held for the late Lady Londonderry (1959)