Caroline Weston

The Honourable Caroline Cecily Douglas-Scott-Montagu Weston died on April 4, 2017, surrounded by her family at her home in New Braunfels at the age of 92. Born in England, she met and married Canadian Grainger Weston in the years after World War II and moved to the United States. They set down permanent roots in Texas, initially in Waco, and then on a ranch in Marion, north of San Antonio, where they raised their family.

Born in 1925 to John Walter Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, and Alice Pearl Crake, Caroline grew up on the Beaulieu Estate in the rich countryside of England’s New Forest in Hampshire with her sisters Anne and Mary Clare, and her brothers Edward and Robin.

The war played an important role in Caroline’s formative life as she spent three years in Canada where she was sent for safety in 1940. When she returned to England in 1943, She worked in the Women’s Royal Navy Service, or WRENS, at Portsmouth. One event in which she was proud to have participated was D-Day on June 6, 1944, where she helped track the ships moving across the English Channel to Normandy for the invasion. She often spoke of the wartime sense of pride, unity and above all, duty to England that prevailed.

She met Grainger Weston at a garden party in Canada at age 23 and he courted her by mail for two years. They married at Beaulieu Abbey Church in Beaulieu, in 1950 and decided to make their life in America, moving to Texas the same summer to manage Grandma’s Cookies, a family cookie business.

As she watched her children grow up at the ranch, Caroline deeply enjoyed the fact that she was involved in their daily lives in a way that would not have been possible in England. They didn’t go off to boarding school, but stayed close. While she wasn’t a disciplinarian by any means, her children all remember that they knew immediately when she was disappointed.

Among her relatives in England, she was known as “the angel in the family,” and as “unceasingly kind, gentle, patient and generous.”

Caroline was highly regarded in Waco, San Antonio and in New Braunfels due to her deep involvement in these communities. She was a member of the Junior League of San Antonio, the Alamo Heights-Terrell Hills Garden Club and First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio. She was recognized for her work in music education in schools through the San Antonio Symphony.

In New Braunfels, she was an active supporting member of the Mid-Texas Symphony and the New Braunfels Arts Council, where she was honored with a lifetime achievement award for her consistent support of the organization, in particular, bringing murals to public spaces in downtown New Braunfels to celebrate the history of the city. She was a charter member of the historic outdoor art museum in New Braunfels. She also tutored students through the New Braunfels Independent School District’s HOSTS program and was a major supporter of Hope Hospice in New Braunfels. She supported the Circle Arts Theatre, worked at the SOS Food Bank and was an active member of New Braunfels Presbyterian Church. The new performing arts center at Texas Lutheran University, which will open this fall, is named in her honor in recognition of her lifelong support of youth music education.

She will be deeply missed by her four children and their families, Galvin and his wife, Michelle; Sarah and her husband, Mark; Gregg and his wife, Monique; and Graham and his wife, Elizabeth; and her 12 grandchildren: Garrett Weston, Cecily Weston, Weston Eidson, Beau Eidson, Barrett Eidson, Charlotte Weston, Isabella Weston, Katherine Weston, Gregory Weston, Glenn Weston, Grant Weston and Gage Weston, as well as five great-grandchildren: Melissa Weston, Tyler Weston, Sara Weston, Gavin Weston, Charles Eidson and his sister due soon.

She is also survived by Grainger Weston, by her brother, Robin Pleydell-Bouverie and his wife, Flickie, and many other nieces and nephews, and grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Services to commemorate Caroline Weston’s life will be on Monday, April 17 at 2 p.m. at the New Braunfels Presbyterian Church at 373 Howard Street, followed by a private family graveside ceremony at the ranch in Marion at a later time.

Gifts in her honor may be made to the SOS Food Bank P.O. Box 311032, New Braunfels, TX 78131, www.nbfoodbank.com, the Mid-Texas Symphony at 1000 W. Court St, Seguin, TX 78155, (830) 463-5353, or to the Caroline Montagu Weston Music Scholarship at Texas Lutheran University.