The Irish Linen Shop’s Jane Pocock has died.

Ms Pocock, who was 94, founded the Front Street fixture with her late husband Jim, with their son Jeremy also involved in the business.

She died last Friday.

A statement on the shop’s Facebook page said: “Jane Pocock, a woman of style and exacting, impeccable taste died peacefully in her sleep on the morning of April 15.

“Elegant and sophisticated, Jane and her late husband Jim with son Jeremy, brought the world of fine living to Bermuda and created one of Bermuda’s most iconic retail businesses in Hamilton.”

The statement added: “Before there was talk of global economies, internet shopping and disposable, quick-fix lifestyles there was Jane Pocock with her discerning eye for enduring style and her personal philosophy that even in small things, there is always an opportunity for refinement.

“It was the life she led and it was a well-lived life.”

Ms Pocock is survived by three children, Armine, Richard and Jeremy, seven grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren.

Greg Hartley, who runs helmet-diving company Hartley’s Undersea Adventures, a nephew of Ms Pocock, said: “She was pretty much an institution when it came to fine linens.

“It’s a credit to Bermuda that it wasn’t just knick-knacks, it was fine Irish and English linens you couldn’t get in the United States.” The Irish Linen Shop was founded in the 1940s in Somerset Village. But, as the tourism market expanded and changed, the family company decided to open a shop in Hamilton.

And it was Ms Pocock who found the site at on the corner of Front Street and Queen Street, where the firm has done business for more than 50 years. A notice in yesterday’s edition of The Royal Gazette said that, in line with Ms Pocock’s wishes, the funeral will be private.