HENRY Herbert, the 17th Earl of Pembroke, who died last week at the age of 64, was a country lover, a film director and a "modern peer".

As the 17th Earl of Pembroke and the 14th Earl of Montgomery, he succeeded his father in 1969, taking over the reins of Wilton House and its magnificent estate and overseeing one of the largest restoration projects ever seen at Wilton.

He created four new gardens and introduced new features for visitors to Wilton House.

Under his leadership, the house, gardens and estate frequently became venues for public events.

Born on May 19, 1939, Henry George Charles Alexander Herbert was educated at Eton College and Oxford University, before joining the Royal Horse Guards in 1958 for his national service.

After serving in Cyprus, he returned to Oxford to read history.

He married Claire Rose Pelly in 1966 and there were three daughters of the marriage, Sophia, Emma and Flora, and a son, William.

The couple were divorced in 1981 after 15 years of marriage.

In April 1988, Lord Pembroke married Miranda Oram, a former neighbour of the Pembroke's whom he had known for many years.

Miranda's father, Commander John Oram, had lived in Bulbridge House, across the garden wall from the Wilton Estate.

There are three daughters from this marriage.

In his early adult life, Lord Pembroke was part of the culture set in London developing an interest in films and film-making, which led him in 1965 to travel to Norway to work on the Kirk Douglas film Heroes of Telemark.

He joined a new independent film company making documentaries about the music business, directing films about The Animals, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix.

His other works include the film Emily, starring Koo Stark, later a girlfriend of Prince Andrew's, and television series such as Bergerac and Shoestring.

Lord Pembroke won the Golden Hugo award at the Chicago International Film Festival for his short film What Colour is the Wind?, about blind children, and visited the Cannes Film Festival, where his first major full-length feature film, Malachi's Cove, was shown.

He was always supportive of the arts and was a well-known and valued patron of the Odeon in Salisbury and Salisbury Playhouse.

Lord Pembroke was a countryman through and through and, as well as running the Wilton Estate, he himself farmed 2,000 acres of arable land.

He was a traditionalist and was often outspoken on rural matters.

In 1978 he launched a scathing attack on "greedy farmers", whose tactics, he said, threatened to destroy wildlife and insect life.

He opposed the removal of hedges and ploughing up every corner of the countryside, and warned that extracting "every last ounce" of the ground would lead to the countryside suffering.

Lord Pembroke served as deputy Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire in 1995.

He enjoyed horse-racing and frequently wrote about the sport in the Wiltshire Life magazine.

His other interests included gardening, photography and ornithology.

Lord Pembroke was also president of the Wilton branch of Wiltshire Conservatives. Salisbury MP Robert Key this week paid tribute to a man he described as a "remarkably modern peer".

Mr Key said Lord Pembroke had come from an ancient Wiltshire dynasty interwoven into the history of England, and that this was something he had been very conscious of.

But, said Mr Key, Henry Herbert had a "thoroughly modern outlook and a social vision that was thoroughly modern".

Mr Key said: "He was always looking forwards, how to bring the estate and its farmers and families into the 21st

century.

"We all will miss him.

"Lord Pembroke has come to the end of a very full life, and surely it is a relief after such a long illness that he is now at rest."

Lord Pembroke's funeral service will be held today at 11.30am in Wilton parish church and will be followed by private cremation and interment.

Donations in Lord Pembroke's memory will be divided between Brackendene Clinic and Salisbury Hospice Care Trust. Donations should be sent to the Wilton Estate Office, at Wilton House.