Lady Moyola, widow of Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark, has passed away in her late nineties

Her first husband was Captain Thomas Haughton, who ran a family linen firm in Cullybackey and was son of a unionist MP for South Antrim. He died in an airplane accident in 1953, which she miraculously survived, despite serious injuries. The couple had one son.

She went on to marry James Chichester-Clark, Lord Moyola, in 1959 and the couple had two daughters. Born in 1923, he was prime minister of Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1971 and died in 2002.

A family notice said Lady Moyola passed away peacefully on 7 March 2024 at The Somme Nursing Home in Belfast. It said she was the much loved and devoted mother of Michael, Fiona and Tara and also a dear grandmother and great-grandmother.

She was in her late nineties.

The Castledawson Review reported in 2020 that she had survived Northern Ireland's worst ever recorded aviation crash. The domestic flight from London hit a pole when landing at Nutt's corner in 1953, killing 27 out of 35 on board.

Her husband Captain TGW Haughton, from Cullybackey, part of the famous linen firm of Frazer & Haughton, was killed.

She miraculously survived, despite being heavily pregnant and suffering a broken neck.

In 1959, then Moyra Haughton, she went on to marry James Chichester-Clark of Moyola Park, Castledawson.

On the death of her husband James Chichester-Clark in 2002, she said he had a rapid rise in politics.

"You lived from day to day - life was very hectic," she told the BBC.

She said while her husband always enjoyed life in the countryside, he always enjoyed his political career.

As they lived in the middle of the constituency, however, people called for help at all hours of the night, she said.

"The door was never closed to them - no matter who. He always said to me the life of an MP was like the life of an army welfare officer."

Lady Moyola spoke out in support of the campaign to give Gurkhas residency rights in the UK after a high profile campaign by actress Joanna Lumley in 2009.

Lady Moyola said it was "an absolute disgrace" that Gurkha soldiers who fought in the British Army are being denied the right to settle in the UK.

"My father served with the Gurkhas and my grandfather as well. So this is a very personal, almost family issue to me," she told the News Letter.

Her grandfather, Colonel Godfrey Morris, commanded a battalion of Gurkhas in World War One and her father served with them in Malaya and Burma.

“I first knew and met Gurkhas from the age of five. They are fantastic people. The charming thing about them is that they are so cheerful, which makes them so endearing to people.

She added: "When I was out in India at the end of the war, I was at a parade in which five Victoria Crosses were presented to Gurkha soldiers."

In 2022 the News Letter reported that she watched the Queen’s funeral from her room in the Somme Nursing Home, recalling the days when she would have attended such occasions.

The then 96-year-old particularly enjoyed watching the funeral procession: “It’s been such a spectacle. There’s no other country could do that."

She recalled the Queen’s Silver Jubilee service which she attended with her husband in St Paul’s in 1977.

The family house is private but a service of Thanksgiving will be held tomorrow in Christ Church, Castledawson, Saturday 9 March, at 3:00pm.