Martin Parsons

The younger son of the sixth Earl of Rosse, and half-brother of Lord Snowdon, Mr Parsons began his working life with a mining company in Australia and subsequently with Qantas.

He returned to the UK in the mid-1970s with his wife, Aline, and their two sons, Rupert and Richard.

Their home was Womersley Hall in North Yorkshire, an Elizabethan residence where the Parsons family lived for generations.

The 17th century hall was home to the family for generations and when he settled back at the hall, Mr Parsons became fascinated by the herb garden.

He and his wife began to make jams and marmalade and then experimented with a herb jelly and a raspberry vinegar. They proved popular and he started to grow more varieties of herbs as well as flowers and chillies. It became a full-time job for them both, boiling up the fruits and herbs, pulping, straining and bottling them all in their kitchen at the hall.

They founded Womersley Foods in 1979 and opened a shop, supplying delicatessens, even selling their geranium jelly through food emporia such as Fortnum and Mason.

Mr Parsons's instinctive abilities and expert horticultural knowledge allowed him to blend the most innovative concoctions, many of which are used by some of the country's top chefs.

Takeover offers were made from time to time by larger companies, but Mr Parsons always resisted the temptation to sell out, preferring to keep control over the quality and manufacture of his beloved products.

Producing speciality foods however did not make enough money to keep up to the demands of running Womersley Hall, which was in desperate need of funds.

The couple's two sons did not want to take on the financial burden of the 60 acres of park and the Grade II listed building which would have cost about 1m to refurbish, so in 2004 the decision was taken to put the house on the market, marking the end of 400 years of ownership by the family.

It went up for sale at 1.7m and was sold to a local buyer.

Mr Parsons said at the time it was sad to lose the family home, but it was a relief to lift the burden and he could concentrate on his passion – growing herbs and dreaming up new flavour combinations for his jellies and dressings.

The family herb collection is staggering and includes dozens of different types of thyme, lavender, mint, rosemary and sage as well as fruit and flowers such as the rose geranium that has been grown at the hall for four centuries.The business has featured on several TV programmes, including the BBC's Food and Drink, and it was a top 20 award winner in Henrietta Green's Food Lover's Guide to Great Britain.

A flamboyant, larger-than-life character, Mr Parsons's natural exuberance and charm made a great impression on all those who came into contact with him.

His colourful persona was matched by the intense passion and flavour he poured into all his culinary creations, and his last wish was that his passing should be marked by a "jolly good party".

The business was taken over in 2009 by his elder son, Rupert, who has continued his parents' legacy.

A current campaign encouraging Yorkshire chefs, restaurateurs and hoteliers to mark Yorkshire Day by serving Yorkshire pudding with Womersley's famous Raspberry Vinegar in the traditional manner, now seems to form a particularly fitting tribute to a unique character whose life was dedicated to quality and tradition.

The funeral will take place at 11am on Friday at St Martin's Church in Womersley.

The family has requested that those attending should have a "splash of colour" to reflect Mr Parsons's personality.