Myrtle Winter was an extraordinary English woman, to be compared for stamina and versatility to her peers in the Middle East, from Lady Hester Stanhope and Jane Digby onwards. She herself claimed to be a descendant of Nicholas Winter, a conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot.

She was born in 1916. Little is known of her father except that he served in the Indian Army. After his death in the Thirties Myrtle began her career as a juvenile cabaret entertainer, as a dancer, acrobat and trumpeter. She appeared at the Hotel Negresco in Nice, and then embarked on an extended tour of the night clubs throughout the Middle East with her mother and blind sister Hazel as chaperones. In Turkey she performed for Kemal Atatürk, and then proceeded through Syria to Iran, where for a summer break her mother, Myrtle and Hazel climbed Mount Ararat. On to Kurdistan and Afghanistan, she hitch-hiked from Quetta to Kabul, under the protection of two long-distant lorry drivers.

Already proficient in many languages (she spoke Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Greek, Italian, German and French, for starters) when war broke out she was recruited by British Intelligence and sent as an interpreter to Cairo. This suited her fine, and as a yachtswoman on the Nile taught many of her friends to sail. She was also an accomplished and daring horse rider. As a striking blonde, she attracted the attentions of the young King Farouk, like other young women at that time. As a sideline she covered the coronation of King Feisal of Iraq as a freelance photographer.

Her remarkable aptitude for languages was noted, and she was later posted to Bermuda, where with Peter Wilson (later chairman of Sotheby’s) she interrogated captured German submariners.

After the war and a spell with the Daily Express as an apprentice photo-journalist, in 1952 she joined UNWRA (the United Nations refugee agency) in Beirut, to create an audiovisual department. It was a brilliant appointment. Above all she was an immensely caring individual, and quickly realised that her talents could be used to publicise the humane cause of the Palestinian refugees, in ways that perhaps the United Nations hadn’t thought of. The photographic archive of her department (now safely stored in Vienna) is the greatest single testimony to the plight and total devastation of the lives of the million and a half Palestinian refugees spread over Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

An example of her uncompromising determination was the production of Twice in a Lifetime. Illustrated with stunning photographs, this was the story of the Palestinian refugees from 1948 until their forced exodus across the Jordan in 1967 and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. As a statement of the facts, under the seal of the United Nations, she argued for the veracity of every single word. Twice in a Lifetime was translated into six languages and a quarter of a million copies printed and distributed worldwide.

Winter was also responsible the following year for Sequel, documenting the refugees subsequent fate in Lebanon and Jordan, with a foreword by U Thant. This graphically drew attention to the urgent need to raise $3.5million, to offset the deficit of UNWRA funds created by this unexpected upheaval. At this point each Palestinian refugee existed on a subsidy of 10c a day.

Myrtle became commodore of the Beirut Yacht Club, winning many of the trophies (to the chagrin of her male competitors) and represented Lebanon at the Mediterranean Games. She was also an expert skier among the cedars of Lebanon.

Married to Jules Chaumeny, she lived happily in retirement in Cannes for the next 30 years, regularly sailing on her yacht Zoe in Greece and Turkey. She maintained her multiple skills, one of which was show her admiring friends how to drink a pint of beer while standing on her head.

Myrtle Winter, photographer and United Nations officer, was born on September 3, 1916. She died on April 5, 2008, aged 92