Lady June Douglas-Hamilton remembered

She was among those who campaigned for the re-opening of North Berwick Museum, and was vice-chairwoman of North Berwick Day Centre. The campaign to have the long-shut museum back open was a great success, and the museum opened its doors once more in 2014.

In her role as the chairwoman of the Friends of the North Berwick Museum, she programmed a popular series of talks and lectures attended by the writer William Dalrymple.

That role also fulfilled her passion for local history – she curated numerous exhibitions such as the Edington Hospital Centenary, and for the Robert Louis Stevenson Festival, publishing a short history on RLS and North Berwick.

June Mary Curtis was born in Ireland on June 12, 1946, and was the eldest of five children – making the move to Wales, where she attended Holywell Grammar.

Still a teenager, June ran the local jazz club, which led to an association with her taking bookings for bands, among them the Rolling Stones.

She attended Lady Mabel College of Physical Education in Yorkshire, the largest private house in the UK.

Here she was considered to be amongst the top athletes in Britain. She trained in the Laban School of dance and found herself treading the same stage as Pavlova in previous years.

On graduation she was offered a position as a PE teacher at a local girls’ boarding school but in 1968 she went instead to Minsthorpe – a large modern comprehensive in West Yorkshire, deemed an area of social deprivation.

Her talent was recognised and she was soon appointed the UK’s first female youth tutor, a role that took her out into the wider community, and a role previously deemed too unsafe for women.

It was as a youth leader working on the city challenge course where she met her husband-to-be, Hugh Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, son of the 14th Duke of Hamilton.

They shared a philosophy to help people take advantage of their own potential. They continued in this role as leaders of the fledgling Outward Bound Movement, and went on to become board members of Locheil in the Scottish Highlands.

This work took her to communities in Bradford, Derry, Pontefract and Batley. In Derry, she worked with a community of travellers, famously saving the life of one that had been shot. When she ended up in a near-fatal car crash later, the entire community came out to visit her in hospital.

Her marriage to Lord Hugh in 1971 caught the imagination of the wider public and it was a major sensation amongst the tabloids of the day.

Hounded by the press, they chartered an aeroplane to honeymoon in Ireland, in a bid to escape public interest – but found themselves staying at the same hotel as The Dubliners!

Hugh embraced Ireland and Gaelic culture. In remote rural Donegal, they found themselves amongst friends and neighbours such as Henry Mcllhenny, a major American philanthropist and owner of Glenveagh Castle, where Greta Garbo and other Hollywood stars would hide away.

In the early 1970s, they found themselves caught up in the plight of Tory Island. They joined the campaign against the Irish Government’s threat of eviction of the islanders who form Europe’s most ancient and remote island community.

June’s passion for youth justice continued and, in 1972, she was appointed to the Children’s Panel Advisory Committee, where she served for 10 years in the South East of Scotland.

In 1978-1982 she was based at Tyne Park List D School, Haddington, and in 1985 was given the challenge by the Church of Scotland of reforming St Joseph’s List D School, Tranent, which was threatened with closure.

As chairman of the governors, she secured its position and it continued to thrive.

In 1989 she co-opted Sir Gerald Balfour to draft the Children’s Act. Her aim was to ensure children were safeguarded and that their welfare was promoted and enshrined in government.

June’s marriage to Lord Hugh – whose brother Angus would become the 15th Duke of Hamilton – was annulled in 1991.

She retained a lifelong love of Donegal. She readily embraced duality in all its guises. A maverick, and a fiercely independent woman, she had great compassion, humility and commitment to social justice. Hers was an unequivocal passion and belief in equality and opportunities for all. Her home was always filled with love, music, conversation, a roaring peat fire and ample whisky.

In recent months, June married Aidan Matthew, retired architect, her friend and partner of 34 years at home in North Berwick.

She was diagnosed at the end of July with terminal cancer. She spent the last two weeks of her life in St Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh, who cared beautifully for her. She died on October 31 and leaves behind her son Brendan and his wife Jennifer, and her daughter Kitty.

A memorial mass was held on Saturday at Our Lady, Star of the Sea Church, North Berwick.