Maureen Wallace

When Prince Charles and Princess Anne were toddlers they played happily in a Buckingham Palace nursery which contained fabrics designed by a Carlisle woman and chosen by the Queen.
The designer became known to very many people as Maureen Wallace, a multi-talented woman who also made models, cooked superb dishes, was a consummate seamstress and was a tarot card reader with a deep understanding of the occult.
She read the cards for many clients at her office near the city end of Warwick Road and she did readings in people's homes.
Her mini-library of books contained all the wisdom of the ages when it came to tarot cards and she did charge for her readings, £5 and then £10 a time, although she never made a profit.
For this was never her intention. She merely wanted to give people the benefit of her interest and cover her expenses and this she singularly failed to do.
The rent for her office was, usually, greater than her income but she didn't mind.
Her interest in tarot cards and in the occult was just that – an interest she had for most of her life. It was an interest she tried to use for good and there was never a hint or suggestion of magic, black or otherwise.
Well aware of the inherent dangers she never practised in the occult world. She was, for instance, horrified by ouija boards and would never let her family anywhere near them.
She could, also, tell fortunes through palmistry and once, when Gypsy Rose Lee came to Carlisle, she read that artiste's palm.
Born Maureen Finlay she grew up at Spa House, in Stainton, Carlisle, and became a pupil at the Carlisle and County High School for Girls and then a student at the city art college.
An artistic girl, she went to work at the city's Tullie House Museum and there showed considerable skill as a doll and model maker. Her work was exhibited in the museum and the walled city model that can still be seen in Carlisle Castle owed much to her work.
She made most of her own clothes and this skill in designing probably led to a job with Ferguson Fabrics, where she worked for many years and where she produced the designs that graced the royal nursery.
She designed sets for the city's Green Room theatrical productions and it was there that, wearing some very tight pants, she was bending down when someone gave her a resounding slap across the backside.
She whirled round and was astonished when the man who had delivered the blow asked her for a birthday kiss. Far from being affronted, she obliged, the couple fell in love and married in 1964.
His name was Eric Wallace and he went on to become the much-loved presenter and anchorman at Border Television and Radio Cumbria.
Aged 79 when she died, Mrs Wallace leaves her daughter, five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and her brother.
Her funeral took place at Carlisle Cemetery and was followed by a woodland burial alongside her husband, who died in 2004.