Marrying Peter Scott in Iceland in 1951 while on a trip with him to find the breeding grounds of the pink-footed goose, Philippa Scott (who became Lady Scott when he was knighted in 1973, but was known to friends simply as Phil), played a crucial role with him in the establishment of the Severn Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, these days the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).
The pair travelled the world promoting the concept of conservation, long before it became fashionable. In the process she turned herself into an accomplished professional photographer and her work illustrated a number of books written by, or in collaboration with, him.
After Sir Peter Scott’s death in 1989 she continued to promote conservation, maintaining her association with WWT right to the end as the trust’s honorary director. She also wrote two books of memoirs and saw through to publication a collection of his paintings that he had always wanted to see published himself.
She was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1918, the daughter of a Royal Navy officer, Commander F. W. Talbot-Ponsonby. She grew up on a farm on the high veldt and developed a healthy relationship with open-air pursuits, notably mountain climbing. Later in her life she was to become a keen scuba diver.
She had frequent holidays in Europe and when war broke out, volunteered for the Land Army. Later she got a job in intelligence at the UK’s main encryption centre at Bletchley Park. There she worked until the end of the war, when she obtained a posting with the Foreign Office in Belgrade, then the capital of Tito’s postwar socialist Yugoslavia.
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She returned to London in 1947, undecided on what to do next. When a friend rang her to tell her that there was a job available with Peter Scott, the name meant little more to her than that he was well known for “painting ducks”. But she took the post as his personal secretary and she also became an assistant secretary to the Severn Wildlife Trust.
Scott had behind him a remarkable career apart from his painting. He had won the international 14-foot dinghy championship for the Prince of Wales Cup in 1937, 1938 and 1946; he had won a bronze medal for single-handed sailing at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin; and he had served during the war in destroyers and light coastal forces (steam gunboats), winning two Distinguished Service Crosses and being appointed MBE.
Scott was at that time married to the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, but the marriage was dissolved in 1951, and he and Philippa married later that year. The Scotts, between them, then created one of the world’s finest collections of ducks, geese and swans at Slimbridge. This became a centre for the study of bird behaviour and movements through a programme of ringing, and, of course, of conservation.
The greatest triumph in the last sphere was undoubtedly the rescue from extinction of the Hawaiian goose or nene. The world breeding stock was down to 27 birds when Scott visited Hawaii and had a small number of birds brought to Slimbridge. From this were established breeding colonies throughout the world, and hundreds were released in Hawaii.
This feat established the Scott conservation credentials and when he launched a career as a television presenter with the BBC natural history programmes Look and Faraway Look, she accompanied him throughout the world. Her photographs illustrate his books Faraway Look I and II, Animals in Africa, and three volumes of Travel Diaries of a Naturalist.
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After his death she worked with Keith Shackleton on the volume of his paintings he had always wanted to see published, selecting all the works of art and writing the captions and preface. The Art of Peter Scott: Images from a Lifetime had its 3rd edition in 2008.
She published two books: a memoir of her childhood, Lucky Me (1990), and an account of her travels, So Many Sunlit Hours (2002).
She lived at Slimbridge till the end. She is survived by her daughter and son.
Philippa Scott (Lady Scott), conservationist, was born on November 22, 1918. She died on January 6, 2010, aged 91