Widow leaves £4.5m to US theatre

Mona Webster was married for 40 years and had no children

An Edinburgh widow has left £4.5m to a New York theatre.

Mona Webster, who died at the age of 96 in August this year having amassed a £10m fortune, left nearly half the cash to the city's Metropolitan Opera House.

As well as giving to the Manhattan arts venue, she left money to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the UK.

The retired Inland Revenue worker also gave £100,000 to the Royal Opera Trust and £100,000 to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The published will of the widow, who did not have a funeral, showed she had a personal property and shares portfolio worth £9,774,330.

The bulk of her wealth was tied up in shares including more than £1m in US soft drinks company Dr Pepper and £635,000 in BHP Billiton, a global resource firm.

She left instructions that once about £825,000 had been given out in donations and gifts, the remaining sum should be divided between the Met and the WWT.

Her Edinburgh home was valued at £550,000 and was left to friends.

She did visit the Met occasionally, and she will be greatly missed by those who had the privilege of knowing her Metropolitan Opera House Spokesman

Mrs Webster was born on 22 January 1913 on the Isle of Man as the youngest child of John and Margaret Laurence.

As a child she lived on Orkney before moving to London to pursue a career in the civil service.

She later came to Edinburgh to continue her career and in 1942 she met and married her husband, Ted Webster, an investment manager at Scottish Union and National.

The couple had almost 40 years of married life together until Mr Webster's death in 1981. They had no children.

A Metropolitan Opera House spokesman said: "Mrs Webster was a long time friend of the Met and a generous donor.

"She did visit the Met occasionally, and she will be greatly missed by those who had the privilege of knowing her."

David Salmon from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust said: "We are extremely appreciative when this kind of provision is made for us.

"The donation will go towards preserving wetlands for wildlife and people. It is a remarkable gesture."

A spokeswoman for the RNLI said: 'We are truly grateful to Mrs Mona Webster for this gift."