A man who spent his working life helping children and young people in Wiltshire, Philip George Wright, died on his 57th birthday after being diagnosed with cancer 18 months earlier.

He died at his Kingsdown home on July 27, having been born in Long Ashton, north Somerset, and attended the local primary school, before moving onto Weston-super-Mare Grammar School.

After leaving school he worked for Cadbury’s in Birmingham, before moving to London where he met his future wife Julia Palmer, who he married near her family home in Leicestershire on August 16, 1975.

They returned to the south west and he went to the University of Bristol to qualify as a probation officer. The couple moved to Kingsdown, near Box, in 1977 and had their son Daniel in 1978 and daughter Amy in 1981.

Mr Wright secured a job for the Wiltshire Probation Service and started his career in Trowbridge, before moving on to Erlestoke, where he worked with young offenders.

He moved into the Family Court Welfare Service and represented children in divorce cases. He also pioneered, with his colleague Anne Jones, an improved initiative of family mediation.

During his time in the Probation Service he was asked to become part of a steering committee commissioned to set up a Children’s Contact Centre in West Wiltshire. He was treasurer up until his death.

He went on to become a mental health social worker, led a team that dealt with mental illness in serial offenders and was on the board of treasurers for Bath Mind, a mental health charity.

He was was chairman of the footpaths committee for Box Parish Council, treasurer of Corsham Windband and a tenor in the Bath Minerva Choir, who will be singing at his funeral along with the choir’s musical director Gavin Carr.

For three summers he worked at Camp Becket in Massachusetts as transportation director and in 2009 received the unsung hero award. The camp has been flying its flag at half mast this week.

Mr Wright’s family wanted to thank Dorothy House Hospice which supported him and his family and Dr Gruffydd-Jones of Box Surgery, and said: “His career represents that he was such a giving person, an amazing listener, and engaged people. He had a wonderful sense of humour.”

His funeral will be at Haycombe Cemetery Top Chapel in Bath on August 14 at 11.15am. All are welcome: no flowers, donations can be made to West Wiltshire Contact Centre and Dorothy House.