JOHN Millward, who has died aged 84, was a popular GP years before he became a Liberal councillor.

Douglas Eyre remembers the doctor appearing at his door just after Mr Eyre was elected to represent West Southbourne.

“I knew John had a reputation as almost a legend as a GP. He was very well liked,” he said.

“When I got elected in 1979, he lived just a few doors down from me. He knocked on my door and said ‘I want to shake your hand because you’re the first person I’ve ever voted for who’s won’.”

Two years later, Dr Millward became county councillor for West Southbourne. A by-election in 1984 allowed him to join Mr Eyre as one of the area’s Bournemouth borough councillors as well.

He was “quite a rebel”, Mr Eyre recalls, lobbying his own party’s MPs on issues including health and the environment.

He twice stood for the Liberal-SDP Alliance as a parliamentary candidate in Bournemouth East – despite one veteran Liberal councillor warning the bearded radical that “every hair on your face is worth 10 votes”.

When the Liberal Democrats became the largest party on Bournemouth council in 1991, Dr Millward was appointed to chair the powerful policy and resources committee. In 1994-95, he served as mayor, with second wife Vicky as mayoress.

After a spell in opposition, the Lib Dems won a hefty victory in 2003, and Dr Millward became council leader. He gave up the post two years later, amid suggestions that a meeting of the party’s councillors had voted him down.

Born in the West Midlands, John Millward went to Dudley Grammar School before national service in the Suez Canal Zone.

He won a place to read chemistry at Oxford but switched to medicine.

After qualifying, he worked at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the Women’s Hospital Wolverhampton. He became a GP for a short while in Wolverhampton and moved to Bournemouth in 1962.

Always a GP who liked to spend time with patients, he became increasingly interested in complementary medicine, and eventually set up a complementary treatment clinic with wife Vicky.

“He got more and more interested in looking to the cause of disease rather than just treating the symptoms,” said Vicky.

In 2005, he published a book, The Treason Within, arguing that governments, big business and pressure groups had misled doctors.

Mr Eyre recalls: “He lobbied the parliamentary party all the time about the fact that we should be pushing for much more to be spent on prevention. Twenty or thirty years on, that debate is going on.”

Dr Millward stood down from Bournemouth council in 2007 and was made an honorary alderman.

He is survived by Vicky, children Helen and Philip, stepchildren Simone and Craig, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

His family decided he would not have wanted ceremonial civic service, so the mayor will represent the council at his funeral at Bournemouth Crematorium on Thursday, February 8, 2.30pm.