Geoff Fagg, a highly-respected former Gillingham councillor, school governor and magistrate has died.

The 90-year-old passed away after a long illness.

His grieving family paid tribute to the local Conservative politician who served Rainham for 19 years and was Gillingham’s deputy mayor for the year from May 1979.

Mr Fagg married wife Heather in 1951 when she was 18 and they had a daughter, Susan.

He was born and bred in the Rainham area, where he lived until 2016 when he moved to a care home in Maidstone Road, Chatham.

After leaving school he got a job at Chatham Dockyard becoming a senior draftsman and where he remained until the closure in 1984.

His father, known as Jack, worked on a farm in the Rainham area. He had a younger brother Alan who died some years ago and a sister Betty, aged 79.

Mr Fagg, an avid Gills fan, was chairman of governors at Thames View School and vice chairman of St Margaret’s School, both in Rainham.

He was also involved in the Dobson Trust, a charity which improves quality of life with one-off grants for needy people living in the former borough of Gillingham.

He leaves a grandson Jonathan, who is married to Tamsin, and granddaughter Tracey and her husband Timothy, who have twins Oliver and Miah. Daughter Susan Moore, who is married to Ralph, said: “We all feel very grateful to have had him in our lives for such a long time, even though the last few years were not easy for him. He was a very proud granddad and was so glad to have become a great- granddad as well.”

His funeral service is today (Thursday) at 2pm at St Margaret’s Church, Rainham High Street, followed by committal at The Garden of England Crematorium, Bobbing. The wake is at Upchurch Golf Club where all are welcome. Family flowers only. Donations to Diabetes UK.