TRIBUTES have been paid to a former chief fire officer who was “devoted” to Dorset Fire Brigade.

Basil Roberts, 88, pictured, died on January 7 after a short illness.

Mr Roberts was chief fire officer at Dorset Fire Brigade, now known as Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, between 1970 and 1983.

His devotion was recognised nationally when he was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service medal for distinguished service in 1975, and became an OBE in 1982.

He was also invested as an Officer of the Order of St John in 1983. Mr Roberts had been a member of the St John Council for Dorset since 1972.

In a career that spanned over a decade, he became a well-known figure in the county, and guided the service through serious heath and forest fires in 1976 and the firemen’s strike from1978 to 1979.

He is also remembered for uniting full-time and part-time fire services in rural areas into a single service.

David Temple, Mr Roberts’s nephew, said: “He was a very personal, private and proud man, a man everyone respected.

“He didn’t have children of his own, so we were very close.” Mr Roberts was born in 1923 in Acrefair near Wrexham.

He joined the RAF in 1942 and was based in India, serving as a bomber pilot in operations against the Japanese. He left the service in 1946 and joined the fire brigade, originally in Liverpool, where he met his future wife Marie, but also served in Hertfordshire, Cornwall and Bristol before being appointed as Dorset’s chief fire officer.

Mrs Roberts also served in the fire brigade as a group officer.

Mr Temple said: “That was about as high as you could get as a woman in those days. Both of them were absolutely devoted to the fire service.”

Another nephew, Bill Boag-Munroe, said his uncle was “delighted” when he followed him into the fire service. He said: “He would talk about the service a lot, even after he retired, and he would always ask what sort of incidents we were dealing with.

The couple lived in Wyke Regis until 2002 when they moved into Castle View Residential Care Home.

Darran Gunter, current chief fire officer, said: “Basil will be remembered as a true professional, and one, even in retirement, who maintained a keen interest in Dorset Fire Brigade, and of course, Dorset Fire and Rescue Service.”