A SCOTTISH woman whose husband fell to his death in India has been described by her heartbroken family as “devoted” to her husband.

Hilary and Roger Stotesbury were on the final leg of a so-called “middle-aged gap year” when he plunged 30 feet after taking photographs at a temple in Orchha, about 160 miles south of the Taj Mahal.

Local media quoted the police as saying he was taking a selfie before he fell from the second floor of the 17th century temple. He is said to have died at Ram Raja hospital in Orchha during treatment.

Stotesbury’s cousin, Gina Rozner, told a news website “neither of them thought it was a fatal accident when it happened. He went from being badly injured with a broken leg, to dying.”

He is understood to have died of cardio-respiratory arrest and had suffered spinal injuries.

The couple’s website “our middle-aged gap year” said they were renting out their home in Oxford and trying to live on £100 a day as they travelled the world.

They said: “Hilary's motto is 'just do it' whilst Roger's is 'to die young as late as possible'.

“We took the view that on your deathbed you never wish you'd spent more time in the office. We've seen our two kids off into the wider world and we have no more caring responsibilities for our parents.

“So we thought now is the time to take a gap year and travel whilst we still have the health and energy. After all you only live once.”

Their website said one of their stops in the US was at Elvis Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, and a blog post stated Hilary always remembered when she heard of the singer's death on August 16 1977. “It was in southern Scotland on a pony ride,” the blog said.

The site also said the couple “spent some time last year in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides” and that he directed a short documentary, Hand Woven Lives, which was filmed on the Isle of Lewis.

India was intended to be the couple’s final stop on their tour, according to the blog. They were due back in the UK next month. A tweet said he was “looking forward to returning to filmmaking in November”.

The couple’s family said: “Roger took lots and lots of photographs, and he had gone to take some views from the temple. He put his equipment down and then he fell.”

The spokesman added: “They were the most happily married couple I have ever known. They were just so devoted to each other.”

Describing their motivations for travelling, they said: “Rather than drift into comfortable retirement we wanted to do something different.

“Also, there are many parts of the world we want to see and we figured continual travel would be more of a switch off and better value for money.

“One aim is to experience countries as travellers rather than time-conscious tourists.

"We had kids soon after we married so hadn't travelled much as a couple and wanted to experience living abroad for an extended time.”

The couple posted pictures of their visit to the Taj Mahal on their website, a day before the tragedy.

In a further statement, released through the Foreign Office, the victim's family said: "Roger Stotesbury was one of the most enthusiastic men who walked the planet, and was incredibly loved by his wife, children and the surrounding community.

"He brightened every room he entered. He and his wife, Hilary, had planned their round-the-world gap year since the beginning of 2016 and set off on November 1 last year.

"They loved the last 11-and-a-half months of energetic travel, exploring from the bottom tip of Patagonia, right up through the Americas, to Canada, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and finally India."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are providing assistance to the family of a British man following his tragic death in India on October 13. Our thoughts are with the family at this sad time.”