TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to one of North Yorkshire's best-known and best-loved residents, Lady Serena James.

Lady Serena, who was in her 100th year, died peacefully at her home in Richmond, the town where she had lived and worked tirelessly for nearly 80 years.

A Freeman of the town, she played a leading role in many organisations across the town, district and county.

"She was very much Richmond's first lady," said the town's Mayor, Councillor John Harris, yesterday.

"She was very deeply loved, and will be very sadly missed by everybody in the town. She was a very generous benefactor and was involved things too numerous to mention."

He added: "She was a great friend to the town and had great presence and style. Everyone who met her, even for a few minutes, will always remember her."

Her friend, Angela Metcalfe, a former Richmond mayor, said: "Her love of the town was so much, and she was so involved in the community, that we will all mourn her. We all admired her, and she filled her life with love."

Lady Serena, whose father was the Earl of Scarborough, arrived in Richmond as a young bride in 1923. Her husband, the Honorable Robert James, died in 1960.

The mother of two daughters, Fay and Ursula, she became a leading light in the St John organisation and the NSPCC, as well as many other groups.

She was a magistrate for many years.

Lady Serena was also a keen and talented gardener. The grounds of her 14th-Century home won national acclaim.

Her big-hearted nature was demonstrated to all in the 1980s when it emerged that she had given a home to a cheerful tramp she found sleeping in her stables.

Her funeral will he held at Richmond Parish Church next Wednesday, at 1.30pm.