DOLL maker and artist Daphne Gordon from Fordingbridge has died aged 82.

Mrs Gordon and her husband Alan ran the Doll Museum in the town for the last 32 years, where Daphne would make the dolls, most notably the four foot Princess Diana doll with her accompanying baby William doll, along with hundreds of effigies made from wax and bisque.

Over the years, some 60,000 visitors from all over the world have been to the little museum, where Daphne would bring the most iconic figures to life through the dolls that she created.

Daphne was a student nurse at Windsor Hospital when she met Alan, a 15-year-old cub reporter on the Windsor and Eton Express. The pair fell in love, married at 18 in Windsor and had five children.

Mr Gordon ended up on the Daily Mirror and moved to Rockbourne in 1974 to cover a story about a suspected IRA terror cell.

Mrs Gordon supported her husband throughout his colourful career breaking many a story and rubbing shoulders with many notorious contacts, including the Kray twins.

But it was in 1982 when the pair brought the Georgian townhouse in Bridge Street, which would later become the Doll Museum, where Daphne would run the International School of Doll making, passing on her skills to dozens of other doll makers.

Daphne was a keen horsewoman and bought a bay filly that no one wanted, in 1996 at the Newmarket yearling sales. She was named Daphne’s Doll.

Daphne’s Doll went on to win her first race at Lingfield and clocked up more accolades at Salisbury, Kempton Park and the group one Canadian Woodbine International. Alan Gordon paid tribute to his wife, describing her as “genius in art, sculpture, doll making and history”.

He said: “Making dolls with poured wax is extremely difficult. Yet Daphne was as good as the Victorian artist. She could also restore antique dolls. She was, without doubt, one of the best doll makers in the world.

“She was desperately shy and unassuming. She was so small and dainty, with tiny size four feet. Yet she leaves an awesome footprint on Fordingbridge and the world.”