Lady Anne Berry

Lady Anne Sophia Berry (née Walpole, 11 December 1919) is an English and New Zealand horticulturist who founded Rosemoor Garden. She offered the garden to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1988. In 1990 she married Bob Berry and went to live on his farm at Tiniroto, Gisborne, New Zealand. She then created the Homestead Garden of Hackfalls Arboretum.

Anne was born in 1919 to the Walpole family in England. Her father was Robert Horace Walpole, the fifth and last Earl of Orford (10 July 1854 – New Zealand 27 September 1931). He married twice. His second marriage was on 15 September 1917 with Emily Gladys Oakes (then styled as Countess of Orford), daughter of Rev. Thomas Henry Royal Oakes, and the mother of Anne.

One of the Walpole family members had been recorded at the siege of Acre in 1191. Later generations remained an established part of the British political, cultural and literary world. Some famous ancestors were:

The title passed through the generations, Anne's father becoming the last Earl in 1894. He was aged 67 when she was born. He had no son, and decided to make over the family estate of Wolterton Hall (North Norfolk) of 4,000 acres (16 km²) to a distant male cousin in 1928. He emigrated to Manurewa, New Zealand, in 1928, and died in 1931. In 1923 he had bought a 16 hectares (0.16 km²) property called Rosemoor in North Devon as a fishing lodge. Anne and her mother lived there after 1928, interspersed with three visits to NZ in the 1930s. Thus Anne spent part of her youth in New Zealand. The free life in New Zealand suited her. Anne didn't go to school and had a governess, but she used to dodge her, going hunting.

Back in England as a debutante proved to be a restricting time with al the social niceties including being present at Court. Her mother created some of the earliest garden features at Rosemoor, such as the Stone Garden, which still lies at the heart of Lady Anne's Garden. 25 November 1939 Anne married Colonel Eric Palmer. Her early married life was spent "camp following" the regiment, including two and a half years in Northern Ireland. Rosemoor was lent to the Red Cross as a rest home for Londoners from the East End suffering the effects of the Blitz. 6 March 1943 her first son John Robert was born. Anthony Eric Fletcher was born 4 November 1945. After the war her husband bought more land around Rosemoor and established a dairy farm. Anne's passion was horses in those days.

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