A WIDOW has stunned her friends and family by leaving £4.5 million to a New York opera house.
Music lover Mona Webster, who died in Edinburgh aged 96 in August, bequeathed the windfall to the city's Metropolitan Opera House.
She amassed a £10m fortune and last night it emerged she had left instructions for the bulk of her wealth to be div
ided between the Manhattan opera institution and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).
The retired Inland Revenue worker also left £100,000 to the Royal Opera Trust in London's Covent Garden and £100,000 to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
The published will of the widow – who declined to have a funeral – showed she had a personal property and shares portfolio worth £9,774,330.26.
The bulk of her wealth was tied up in shares, including more than £1m in US soft drinks company Dr Pepper and £635,000 in BHP Billiton, a global resource firm.
She left instructions that once around £825,000 had been given out in donations and gifts, the remaining sum should be divided between the Met and the WWT. Her Edinburgh home was valued at £550,000 and was left to friends.
Mrs Webster left some cash gifts to surviving family members, but the size of her legacy has surprised those who knew her.
A friend of the family said: "Everybody knew about Mona's love of opera and birdwatching, but the family are stunned at the level of generosity given to these two causes.
"She was a very modest person, and will be missed by everyone who knew her.
"Mona was a kind and caring person, and her friends and family I'm sure will be delighted her legacy will live on through her sizeable donations."
Mrs Webster was born in January 1913 on the Isle of Man as the youngest child of John and Margaret Laurence. She lived in Orkney as a child and moved to London to pursue a career in the civil service.
She moved to Edinburgh to continue her career and in 1942 she met and married her husband, Ted Webster, an investment manager at Scottish Union and National.
The couple enjoyed nearly 40 years of married life together until Mr Webster's death in 1981. They had no children.
Last night a spokesman for Metropolitan Opera said: "Mrs Webster was a long-time friend of the Met and a generous donor. She did visit the Met occasionally, and she will be greatly missed by those who had the privilege of knowing her."
David Salmon, from the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, said: "We are extremely appreciative when this kind of provision is made for us.
"The donation will go towards preserving wetlands for wildlife and people. It is a remarkable gesture."
A spokeswoman for the RNLI added: 'We are truly grateful to Mrs Mona Webster for this gift."
Mrs Webster acknowledged first love was music and she frequently attended performances at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she became well known and respected.
Her other talents included intricate embroidery work, giving talks on various handicrafts, cooking, and handling her own finances, as she had an aptitude for figures.
She had a keen eye for bird watching and through this hobby she visited every continent and recorded more than 5,500 species of birds on these travels.
After her husband's death, Mrs Webster continued to travel with friends often sleeping under canvas.
