She had developed a mellifluous voice, rich with charm, which she put to good use at business school, and later on when talking to parents.

She spent her time at university touring Sweden with an acting troupe performing Shakespeare, and then at parties with the likes of Norman St John Stevas and Julian Slade.

After a short period as a management trainee at Selfridges, she won a classics teacher's job at the independent Francis Holland School, and then at Godolphin and Latymer in Hammersmith.

Brigstocke had got to know him when his wife, Evelyn, was chairman of the St Paul's Girls' School governors, and she had often stayed with them on the Isle of Wight.

[2] In the Millennium Honours list she was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the English-speaking Union, of which she had been chairman since 1993.