Born in Winterborne Monkton, Dorset, Ursula studied at St Swithun’s until she left in 1944. She then went to work in the WRENS at Collingwood, mending radars. After the war, she married her husband, who was in the Royal Navy based at Portland, and had two daughters.

In 1952, Ursula’s husband transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and they emigrated first to Halifax (Nova Scotia) and then Victoria (British Columbia), where their son was later born.

 Living in Canada, Ursula took great interest in the natural world. She was a keen bird watcher and huge flower and butterfly enthusiast. This was a lifelong hobby sparked off by her governess when she was only nine years old. The outdoor lifestyle in Canada therefore suited her very well and she decided to begin her guiding career there, which she continued on returning to England in 1966, when her husband took over the family farm at Monkton.

Ursula loved her garden and this was very important to her right up to the end of her life. She was an early volunteer for the World Wildlife Fund and showed concern about the world’s vanishing species years before it became mainstream thinking.

She was also a dedicated church warden for 30 years and a mainstay of the WI in Monkton. Every autumn, she would be out collecting for the Poppy Appeal, only giving this up once she reached her late 80s.

Family was always uppermost in Ursula’s mind and she was forever having grandchildren to stay and supporting her own three children and her husband. Ursula’s sense of humour and resilience remained for all her 92 years and she died peacefully at home. Her caring and cheerful attitude to life will be greatly missed by her family and many friends.