Marchioness of Salisbury (1922–2016)

Lady Salisbury was born Marjorie "Mollie" Wyndham-Quin to a British naval officer and his wife. As a child in the 1930s, she cultivated patches of her parents' gardens in Ireland and Wales. In 1945, she married Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, later 6th Marquess of Salisbury, with whom she had 7 children. As Marchioness of Salisbury, she was the chatelaine of two of England’s most famous homes, Cranborne Manor in Dorset and the palatial Hatfield House -- the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I -- and oversaw the revival of their great historic gardens. She was a pioneer of organic gardening when she banned pesticides from Hatfield. Her book entitled The Gardens at Hatfield was published in 2005, and her autobiography, A Gardener's Life, appeared in 2007. She has also created gardens for others, most notably for Charles, Prince of Wales at Highgrove and for the Museum of Garden History and Cosby Hall in London.