A former Poole councillor, who represented Hamworthy in the 1970s, has died at the age of 81.

Life-long Labour supporter Sidney White won the seat from the Conservatives at his third attempt in a by-election in 1970.

Then vice-chairman of Poole Labour Party, he stood unsuccessfully for a new Dorset County Council seat in 1973 and served on Poole council until 1974, when he moved from Turlin Moor to Oakdale.

“He went into politics because he saw things that were not right with the world and he wanted to see what he could do to try and correct them,” said son Geoff.

“He stopped being a councillor when he moved from Turlin Moor because he didn’t think it right not to live in the area he represented,” he said.

Sidney Charles White was born in West Ham, London and was evacuated to Thorncombe, Dorset, in the Second World War. when he was nearly 12.

He volunteered to join the army in June 1945 and served in the Royal Fusiliers as an infantry instructor. He had a range of jobs in floor-laying and aircraft fitting and he was working at BAC Hurn where he was an AUEW senior shop steward when he became a councillor, later moving to Dorset Glass.

He married Phyllis in 1962 and they moved to Havant where he worked in personnel for Plessey. They returned to Poole and went to Guernsey in 1988 where she worked as a child care social worker, returning to Upton in 1993.

The couple had two sons, Robin, now a consultant anaesthetist at Luton Hospital, and Geoffrey, an independent financial adviser in Reading, and five grandchildren.

Phyllis died from cancer last October and Sidney died after a short illness. “He loved my mum totally and utterly and really missed her,” said Geoff.