A tribute to Marguerite Marie Garden

She was born Marguerite Marie Jeanne Vourc'h in Plomodiern, Finistere on January 25, 1926.

Her son James said this week: ''Her early wartime experiences shaped her strong personality and her commitment to any cause that she chose to champion. She often commented that her childhood was the most exciting time of her life but she made considerable impact on South Lanarkshire life."

Marguerite was brought up in the coastal area of Brittany as one of nine children, her father, Antoine, the town doctor, had been awarded the Croix de Guerre and La Legion d'Honneur when fighting in the trenches and after being wounded in Verdun in the First World War.

The Second World War had a profound effect on the close knit family. Marguerite's father had denounced the establishment of the Vichy government in June 1940 and organised the local evacuation of French male youths.

Two of Marguerite's brothers, Jean and Guy, were amongst them and they stole away in a small boat across the English Channel, only being picked up by a British submarine after some 12 days at sea.

In January 1941, part of the family home was commandeered to billet Gestapo and Wehrmacht officers.

This was all the more remarkable because her father led the local resistance movement, serving as a conduit for information to British Intelligence and helping repatriating airman to England.

Marguerite, as a young teenage girl, was a perfect courier for the resistance and would pass on gathered intelligence, either as she cycled around the local area during vacation or when travelling to and from Paris to school.

She had to take greater responsibility in the family when her father had to flee before she, her sister, Marinette, and her mother also had to hide in Paris as a trail of exposed resistance members led to the family home.

Marguerite was in Paris during its liberation in August 1944 and had the harrowing task of locating and bringing back to her mother the body of her brother, Jean who had been fatally wounded at Versailles during the liberation.

After the war, she continued her studies in Paris and it was

during this time that she met her future husband James, an orthopaedic surgeon, while showing visitors round Versailles.

Her son James said: ''Mum followed him to Scotland, against the wishes of her father, when she interrupted her university studies and married in 1949.

''She set up the family home initially in Carluke and then in Braidwood.

''She supported dad in soliciting improvements for the development of orthopaedic and trauma services at Law Hospital.

''They made a dynamic couple in the local community.''

Marguerite was a prime mover in founding the Corehouse Nature Reserve and served the local Red Cross. She also worked tirelessly in collecting funds for the Poppy Appeal and was prominent at Lanark Remembrance services.

The family moved to Lanark in 1965, buying the family home from Dr Joe Bryant, whose brother, Admiral Ben Bryant,was the submarine commander who had rescued her brothers in 1940.

In April 2003, her contribution to the resistance movement was recognised belatedly by the French government by the award of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and she was nominated for a Woman of the Year award.

She moved from the family home in Lanark to Edinburgh a few years later as it became evident that she was struggling to maintain her independence due to the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.

She died in Edinburgh on May 5. Her husband predeceased her in 1992 and she is survived by her seven children, 13 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

A Service of Celebration for Marguerite Garden will be held in Lanark's St Nicholas Church on Thursday (May 13) at 11.15am.