Marjorie Holmes was an accomplished botanical artist and a passionate gardener who created a remarkable Mediterranean garden at San Luca, her home in Corfu where she had lived since 1974.
She was born Charlotte Marjorie Fisher in Hong Kong in 1920, the only daughter of Frank Hastings Fisher, a tough Londoner who went east, became a jewellery designer and then manager of British American Tobacco in Japan. When the Japanese invaded Hong Kong she was evacuated to Australia where she was an art student in Sydney, developing her particular and remarkable skill in botanical paintings.
It was in Australia in 1944 that she met Ronald Holmes. They were married in Toorak, a Melbourne suburb, the following year when he came to Australia for respite from fighting the war behind the enemy lines in China and Hong Kong.
Ronald Holmes had served in Hong Kong from 1938, becoming a fluent Chinese speaker, and was part of the British Army Aid Group operating in China, including taking part in a series of guerrilla actions in the Far East to rescue prisoners from Japanese detention camps. After the war he played a significant role in the reconstruction of Hong Kong, becoming Secretary for Chinese Affairs and then chairman of the Public Service Commission. He was knighted for his service to the colony in 1973.
Marjorie Holmes was a strong support to her husband in his various posts and continued to develop her botanical and artistic interests, holding numerous exhibitions on the theme of “Wild Flowers of Hong Kong”. She had already travelled widely as her paintings from such places as Afghanistan, Russia and Macau testify.
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She was particularly drawn to the Aegean and the Ionian islands, and persuaded her husband to retire to Corfu. They established their retirement home there in 1974, building the beautiful San Luca villa from scratch to the designs of the architect John Kollas. They enjoyed it together for relatively few years as Sir Ronald died after a short illness in 1981.
It was at San Luca that Lady Holmes established her magnificent Mediterranean garden on a sloping 45-degree site, refusing to use chemicals and weeding it indefatigably. She would characteristically describe weeding as “going out to perform a pleasurable light haircut” in the garden, returning hours later to apologise for having been “distracted by weeds” — which she thought might be a good title for an autobiography. The garden attracted gardening groups from around the world, with whom Lady Holmes shared her knowledge and expertise in cultivating Mediterranean garden plants. She wrote a description of the garden for the Garden Journal in 1984.
Her talent as a botanical artist was remarkable and attracted worldwide attention, one reviewer describing her as “one of the great botanical artists still alive”. The subtle delicacy of translucent petals, the sheen and texture of leaves and vegetables, were alike captured in images of stunning simplicity and beauty. Her watercolour studies of the regional wild flowers of Corfu twice brought her gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and in 2002 she was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
As it was for Gerard Manley Hopkins, the world for Marjorie Holmes was “charged with the grandeur of God”. Her deep and committed Christian faith made her a staunch supporter and much-loved member of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Corfu, serving for many years on the church council, as churchwarden, and as a representative to the Archdeaconry Synod; always working assiduously to assist Holy Trinity’s precarious finances and offering friendship and warm hospitality to new priests and visiting bishops. It was appropriate that she was among those nominated from the Diocese in Europe to attend the Royal Maundy in Westminster Abbey last year — something which gave her enormous pleasure.
Marjorie Holmes was petite and vivacious, with a marvellous sense of humour and a capacity for spontaneous fun. She is survived by two sons.
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Lady Holmes, botanical artist and gardener, was born on July 18, 1920. She died on January 14, 2012, aged 91