TRIBUTES have been paid to a respected former magistrate and mayor of Weymouth and Portland.

Peter Edwin Gordon Harvey died shortly before Christmas, aged 83, following a brief illness.

Mr Harvey was born in London on December 13, 1927 and moved to Dorset with his family, aged 12.

It was at this age that Mr Harvey tried to enlist in the armed forces by telling a Civil Defence recruiting officer he was 15 – but his attempt was unsuccessful.

While at school on Portland Mr Harvey met his first future wife, Phyllis Austin, and the couple were married in 1957.

The couple went on to have three children – Paul in 1959, Jane in 1961 and Andrew in 1964.

After leaving school, Mr Harvey was conscripted into the RAF’s ground crew at the age of 16.

He was based in Nottinghamshire and served overseas in Belgium and France before demobbing.

After leaving the service, Mr Harvey worked for the Southern Electric board first as a meter reader and later as a cashier at the board’s Weymouth branch until he retired in 1992.

Mr Harvey also had second jobs – working behind the bar of Weymouth’s Black Dog pub in the 1960s and early 1970s and later in the 1970s as a porter at Weymouth Community Hospital.

Mr Harvey was a member of Portland Urban District Council from the 1950s, serving as council chairman in 1963 and as island mayor in 1978 after the authority became a town council.

He later became Weymouth and Portland mayor in 1985 after his first marriage ended.

Mr Harvey, who remarried Zena Thomas, twice attended the Queen’s summer garden parties and commissioned a carved stone that stands in Victoria Square on Portland.

He was also a magistrate, serving at the Weymouth courthouse from the late 1970s until his retirement from the role in the late 1990s.

Mr Harvey’s family recalled his love of local history and the Royal family and that he was an avid collector of Royal memorabilia.

He also enjoyed swimming and playing tennis and had travelled to the Caribbean, Canada, Scotland and Wales, where he had family.

Mr Harvey was president of the Weymouth branch of the Royal Air Force Association and was life president of Portland Sea Cadets.

Mr Harvey leaves behind his three children and six grandchildren.

His funeral will take place on Monday, January 10, at St Joseph’s Church, Portland.