Eve Branson was a British philanthropist, child welfare advocate, and the mother of entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. Sir Branson credits the start of the Virgin conglomerate to a £100 given to him by his mother after she sold a necklace. The name of one of Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, VMS Eve, is named after her and that she "will always be my mothership," said Sir Branson. Eve was born the daughter of Dorothy Constance (née Jenkins) and Major Rupert Ernest Huntley Flindt. As a young adult, Eve served in the Women's Royal Navy Service during World War II. After the war ended, she toured Germany as a ballet dancer with Entertainments National Service Association. She later became an airline hostess for British South American Airways. After marrying, she ran a property business and was a military police officer and probation officer. She also wrote novels and Children's books. Throughout her life, Eve was a child advocate. She established the Eve Branson Foundation and served as its director. This charitable organization provides communities in Morocco with income-generating projects and training. She was a member of the board of directors of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children ("ICMEC"), the goal of which is to help find missing children. She was a founding member of ICMEC's board of directors in 1999, seeking to generate awareness of the centre's work, and her son Richard was ICMEC's founding sponsor. Eve died in the U.K. on Friday after contracting COVID-19. Sir Branson's father died in 2011 and together Eve had three kids including his sister's Lindy and Vanessa. Eve is a grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of 10, all of whom love her dearly and miss her greatly. A celebration of her life was posted online by her son Richard.