Marianna Monckton of Brenchley
Philanthropist and local activist who led the way in the foundation of the Heart of Kent Hospice
MARIANNA MONCKTON OF BRENCHLEY, who has died aged 93, was a director of Allied Newspapers in Malta, High Sheriff of Kent from 1981 to 1982 and a passionate fundraiser for good causes in the county; these included the Heart of Kent Hospice in Aylesford, where in October 1992 she arranged for Diana, Princess of Wales, to carry out the official opening.
Five years earlier Marianna Monckton had been invited to join the “wishing well” appeal, helping to raise the £1.3 million needed to build the hospice. After the opening she was appointed patron and over the next 35 years was not only generous with her time and support, but also in the money she raised through hosting events and introducing the hospice to her friends from charitable trusts.
She visited the hospice every Christmas Day without fail, handing out homemade mince pies. She also called in throughout the year, enjoying lunch in the café, visiting patients and listening to their stories.
Her own story was fascinating, with colourful tales, some of which went back to Sir Walter Monckton, her father-in-law, who had been an adviser to Winston Churchill and a friend and legal adviser to Edward VIII at the time of the abdication.
At the hospice’s annual Lady Monckton Awards she invariably paid generous tribute to its staff and volunteers. Instead of giving a speech, she sometimes read out a whimsical or ridiculous poem, sending all present into fits of laughter.
Marianna Laetitia Bower was born in Andover, Hampshire, on June 25 1929, one of eight children (seven daughters and one son) of Commander Robert Bower RN, who served as Member of Parliament for Cleveland from 1931 to 1945, and his wife Henrietta (née Strickland).
Brought up in Putney, she was educated at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Hammersmith. During the war she was evacuated to Sizergh Castle near Kendal, Cumbria, her maternal grandparents’ home; her grandfather, Lord Strickland, 6th Count della Catena in Malta, had been prime minister of Malta at the same time as being MP for Lancaster before being raised to the peerage in 1928.
Young Marianna recalled watching bombers heading for Barrow-in-furness and Whitehaven and seeing the glow of fires on the horizon. Nevertheless, she was happiest outdoors, riding or walking in all weathers.
In 1947 she moved to Malta to work in the office of her aunt, Mabel Strickland, who had founded the Times of Malta newspaper and in the 1950s formed the country’s Progressive Constitutionalist Party. The presence of the Mediterranean fleet in the Grand Harbour of Valletta ensured a constant stream of invitations and parties.
After three happy years Marianna returned to England having become a director of Allied Newspapers, the paper’s parent company. She frequently flew out for board meetings and latterly joined in by Zoom.
She married Major (later Major-general) Gilbert Monckton MC on December 30 1950 at St Mary’s Catholic church in Cadogan Street, Chelsea. Military life meant regular moves with her husband’s career, which included a spell as director of Army public relations, until his final posting as Chief of Staff, British Army of the Rhine.
He succeeded as 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in 1965, the title having been created in 1957 for his father, Sir Walter Monckton, a lawyer, Conservative politician and former minister of defence.
The family settled in Kent where, in addition to being patron of the hospice, Marianna Monckton was president of the local St John Ambulance; a member of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association; and a supporter of the Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate until its closure in 2015. She worked hard to identify benefactors for all the causes she supported.
She also tackled local issues with gusto, demanding the repair of potholes, supporting campaigns against developments that would disturb the rural peace, and ensuring that animals, especially horses, were cared for properly. Often she could be seen stopping her car, picking up litter and throwing it in the boot. She was forthright in expressing her views to local councillors, although she never sought to join their ranks.
Marianna Monckton’s Catholicism meant a great deal to her, although she preferred the traditional aspects of her faith and struggled with some of the modern developments in the Church. Recently she used a letter to the Catholic Herald to recommend the restoration of the Penny Catechism to counter the lack of Catholic education.
Similarly, she wrestled with aspects of contemporary society and was a frequent writer of pithy and forceful letters to the editor of The Daily Telegraph.
When her husband had been stranded at Dunkirk in 1940, he vowed that if he got out alive he would have a chapel in his home. At their large farmhouse in Kent the Moncktons converted the farm office into a chapel: the altar came from the parish priest of Maidstone, the pews from a nearby convent, and the crucifix and window glass from the chapel at Ightham Mote, which had been his family home.
The couple attended their local church on Sundays, keeping their chapel largely for private prayer, although many visiting clergy celebrated Mass there. On one occasion the key to the village church was lost and the congregation decamped to their chapel, though it only seats 12 and most had to be crammed into the hall.
Marianna Monckton was rightly proud of her domestic arrangements in which she was supported by several part-time staff, many of whom remained with the family for decades. She was also helped by her husband’s dowsing talents, which led to the discovery of several small wells on their farm.
A lover of dogs, she had several whippets, lurchers, deerhounds and terriers. In later years she sometimes looked after a neighbour’s lurcher Cassie for the day and could be seen driving her small four-wheel drive “tramper” across the farm as Cassie exercised nearby. More recently, a pheasant known as Jeeves became a daily visitor to the farm office door to be fed corn directly before a more widespread distribution was made to more than 20 white doves.
Last year she received an unexpected, and unwarranted, visit from bailiffs claiming that she owed £1,500 in water rates for a property she did not own. “A van and a car came down my driveway. I went up and asked who they were and the man said he was here to collect money that Viscountess Monckton owes,” she recalled. “At this point I blew and used my father’s best naval language.” The burly bailiffs fled empty-handed.
Marianna Monckton was a Dame of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta. Her husband died in 2006 and thereafter she made an annual pilgrimage to Walsingham on the anniversary of his birth.
She is survived by their daughter, Rosamond, and their four sons Christopher (the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley), Timothy, Jonathan and Anthony.