Image copyright PA
Mary Wilson (second left) with Prince Philip, the Queen and husband Harold
Mary Wilson, widow of former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, has died aged 102.
Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to her as a "wonderful poet" and "huge support in Harold's general election victories".
Harold, later Lord, Wilson was prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and once more from 1974 to 1976, successful 4 elections.
Lady Wilson died at St Thomas' Hospital in London on Wednesday.
A pal of the late poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, her personal poems have been printed within the 1970s in two volumes and bought of their tens of 1000's.
"She was extremely intelligent and I would say formidable, but that sounds as if she was harsh. She was a very strong person," Dame Margaret Beckett advised BBC Radio four's Today programme.
The former international secretary described how Lady Wilson had cared for Harold and helped to "maintain his dignity" throughout his lengthy battle with Alzheimer's illness, which resulted in his demise in 1995.
"She was a really, really lovely person and I am very sorry she is gone," added Dame Margaret.
My love you've gotten stumbled slowly
On the quiet method to demise
And you lie the place the wind blows strongly
With a salty spray on its breath.
For this males of the island bore you
Down paths the place the branches meet
And the one sounds have been the crunching grind
Of the gravel beneath their toes
And the sighing slide of the ebbing tide
On the seaside the place the breakers meet
The daughter of a reverend, she was born Gladys Mary Baldwin within the Norfolk city of Diss in January 1916.
She wrote poetry from the age of six and turned a shorthand typist in Cheshire after leaving faculty, assembly her future husband at a tennis membership within the space in 1934.
The pair married on New Year's Day in 1940, when Harold was working as a senior civil servant on the Ministry of Fuel and Power.
She was at his aspect throughout his rise to prominence within the Labour Party however tended to shun the limelight throughout their years in Downing Street.
Harold Wilson's former bodyguard explains their vacation regime
At her husband's farewell party in March 1976, cupboard minister Tony Benn advised her she would now be capable to have a quiet life.
"I have done my best," she replied, "but I now just want to slip back into obscurity again."
The Wilsons had properties in London and the Isles of Scilly, the place Mary continued to vacation into her late 90s.
They had two sons, Robin and Giles, the previous now an emeritus professor in arithmetic on the Open University, which was based underneath his father's authorities within the 1960s.
Leading tributes to Lady Wilson, Jeremy Corbyn wrote on Twitter: "Sad to hear of the death of Mary Wilson. A wonderful poet and a huge support in Harold's General Election victories. I send my condolences to her family and friends."