West Wiltshire district councillor Bill Viles died peacefully surrounded by his family on May 5 in Plymouth, aged 84.

William Campbell Viles, more commonly known as Bill, was born on June 12, 1930 in Cheltenham the eldest child of four children.

At the age of 18, Mr Viles served his National Service duties in the Royal Signals Corps. After two years, he returned to his beloved West Country where he spent the rest of his working life as a telecommunications engineer.

He moved to Wiltshire for work, and joined West Wiltshire District Council in 1976 as a Conservative representative for Limpley Stoke and Winsley, and was dedicated to this role until 2007.

Throughout this time, Mr Viles prioritised his work on housing and planning matters and became vice chairman of the council in 2004.

After he fully retired from work in 1991, Mr Viles worked closely with the fundraising team at the Royal United Hospital in Bath where he was a volunteer and was in charge of their Christmas raffle, something that he was very proud of.

He would often refer to himself as ‘Young Bill’. A big supporter of ex-service charities, he would always be present at the Remembrance Day parades in Bath and Trowbridge which he never missed for 30 years.

Mr Viles was known amongst the community as a larger than life character. In 2012 he moved to Plymouth to be closer to family.

He still made time to travel to Bath each year for the RUH Christmas raffle and would fly to Germany to collect prizes. In the last few months, Mr Viles’ health deteriorated but he remained in high spirits.

His funeral date has not yet been set, but it will be in Plymouth.