GABRIEL Jaffe, who has died at the age of 92, was a long-serving Bournemouth GP and borough councillor who was described by his family as a “larger-than life raconteur and bon viveur”.

He was born in Nottingham to Dr Henry and Miriam Jaffe. The Jaffes were Livtaks who had escaped the Tsarist progroms in Lithuania in 1904.

They had bought tickets for a voyage to New York but had been tricked and were dropped at New Cork, Ireland. Nonetheless they settled in Limerick until a local Catholic preacher whipped up a riot against the Jewish community and drove them out.

The family settled in Nottingham, where Henry thrived as a doctor, living in an elegant message where Gabriel, known as Gay, grew up.

Gay was educated at Pollacks, the Jewish House at Clifton, and qualified as a doctor at St Thomas’ Hospital. From then, he joined the Royal Navy in 1946 and was posted to Palestine before the formation of the state of Israel.

However, he asked to be reassigned because he did not want to be forced to act against other Jews, and was reposted to the Far East. He later served as a part-time surgeon on the Queen Mary and QE2.

One of his nephews, the writer Simon Sebag-Montefiore, described Gay as a “flamboyant and dandyish character”, adding: “Always mischievous and playful, he was highly attractive to women and the attraction was mutual.”

He eventually settled down with Colleen, whom he met on the Queen Mary when he was working as the ship’s surgeon and she as a hairdresser. “It was very happy marriage and a devoted friendship – Colleen handled his eccentricities with amused indulgence,” Mr Sebag-Montefiore said.

Gay served Bournemouth as a GP for more than 50 years, starting in 1949, and also wrote popular medical books including Promiscuity, The Life Pill and Design for Loving, and was an advocate of birth control.

He was elected a Conservative councillor in 1967, serving until 1995 and becoming mayor for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Year in 1977. He was the first mayor to be a member of Bournemouth Orthodox Synagogue.

During his mayoral year, he fulfilled an ambition by conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a rendition of the William Tell Overture.

He was also a long-standing chairman of the borough’s planning committee, and became chairman of radio station 2CR in 1988.

In later years he was a member of Bournemouth Reform Synagogue and he was a generous supporter of Jewish charities.

Mr Sebag Montefiore said: “He was always immaculately dressed, debonair and he lived life to the full. He loved good food and watching cricket. He was a great wine connoisseur and was particular partial to a fine white Burgundy.

“Until the end he enjoyed purchasing wine and playing the financial markets. Above he was an irrepressible raconteur with an endless supply of jokes and witty stories, told in his distinctive velvety voice.”

Colleen predeceased him and they had no children. He leaves behind his sister, the novelist April Sebag-Montefiore, and four nephews, including Simon Sebag-Montefiore and another writer, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.