My cousin Mary Wane, who has died aged 99, had a long career with the British Council from the end of the second world war onwards, promoting British culture to other parts of Europe.
She began her work at the council in 1945 with a posting to Austria as an interpreter for the occupying Allied Forces. After returning from Vienna in 1947, she was based in London with the British Council, but travelled extensively for the organisation in Europe, promoting educational links and exchanges with other European countries, including the Soviet Union, and organising exhibitions of the work of British artists such as Henry Moore and David Hockney.
By 1968 she was working for the council in Oslo, and from 1972 to 1979 she was its cultural attache in Paris. Made OBE in 1977, her final posting was back in Oslo, as director (1979 -84), before she retired to Cumbria, where she contributed to the arts and political life of the Lake District.
Born in Manchester, Mary was the daughter of Charlotte (nee Kennedy) and Norman Wane, an accountant. She went to Blackburne House school for girls in Liverpool, to where the family had moved, and gained a degree in modern languages at Liverpool University.
She spent a short period as a junior civil servant in 1945 before joining the British Council. Her early years there were some of the happiest of her life – not just professionally but socially, as she sang with the Chelsea Opera Group, which she later helped to run.
For many years Mary was also an active member of the Labour party, but by 1981 she had joined the newly formed SDP. In retirement she worked hard for the Liberal Democrats. Living in the small town of Windermere, she served as a LibDem councillor for Cumbria county council until 1997, and was known for establishing strong cross-party links.
She also carried out research on Cumbrian matters for The Victoria History of the Counties of England project, and was a founder patron and committee member of the Lake District Summer Music festival, remaining a powerful force in its organisation well into her 90s.
She is survived by her nephew, Tim, niece, Mary, and eight cousins.
