AS WITH all big news events, David Bowie’s death had the effect of pushing other important matters from the headlines.

One of these last week was the 100th birthday of Lady (Mary) Wilson, the widow of the long-serving Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

It was a surprise to me, in fact, that she was still alive, nothing having been heard of her for years.

There was a time when Lady Wilson was to be seen around Oxford, possibly because she and Harold’s only child Robin live here. A mathematician by profession, he was once among the team of music critics used by our sister paper the Oxford Mail. Our paths regularly crossed in the office after our respective reviewing of gigs.

Lady Wilson and I have met only once, when she attended the party in St Mary le Strand in 2004 marking the publication of the third and final volume of Bevis Hillier’s biography of Sir John Betjeman.

She and Sir John were long-standing friends, this arising from her enthusiasm for poetry.

That she was a published writer in the field was as widely known in the 1960s as she and Harold’s enthusiasm for the Scilly Isles (and his for Gannex macs). Private Eye poked fun at her in every edition with its Mrs Wilson’s Diary column.

As Hillier’s biography makes clear, Mary and Betjeman’s friendship was a warm one.

The Poet Laureate visited the Scillies, indeed, as you can see from the picture below.

He was also a genuine admirer of her work. “I am as certain as I am of the stars in the sky that there is a lot of good poetry already written by you and more to be written,” he told her.

Though Lady Wilson is the oldest surviving Prime Minister’s wife, Clarissa Eden, aged 95, remains the relict of the longest-ago PM, Anthony Eden.

She, incidentally, was brought up at Wytham Abbey and later, over the hill, at Oaken Holt.