ON JULY 7, 1919, an actor was born who went on to become a beloved figure of British TV.

Jon Pertwee, who attended Sherborne School in Dorset, went on to become the third man to play Doctor Who and was also known as popular children's TV character Worzel Gummidge.

Coincidentally, the show about the scatter-brained scarecrow is being remade with Mackenzie Crook in the lead role.

Besides being schooled in Dorset, Pertwee had many connections with the area.

In November 1973, the Daleks pursued Pertwee, playing the doctor, to Dorset. The ARC Sandpit at Puddletown Road, Gallows Hill, was used as the planet Exxilon. Amid all the sand, the Daleks had to be pushed along on rails by the cast they were supposed to be pursuing.

The third Doctor, Tom Baker, came to Dorset in November 1975 for some location filming at Athelhampton House, near Dorchester, accompanied by Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. The story was The Seeds of Doom, and the house was in the grip of a giant plant monster.

Pertwee came to Dorset many times as a visiting celebrity. He flew a powered glider at Compton Abbas airfield in July 1981 and judged attempts to guess the weight of a hot dog for Bournemouth’s Tenovus charity in August that year.

In 1982 – now known by another generation of children as Worzel Gummidge – Pertwee opened the parade for the Great Poole Extravaganza and appeared at the Great Christchurch Show. The following year, he opened the menswear shop Giannini in Westbourne. He was still visiting Poole’s Dolphin Centre as Worzel in 1992.

His death in 1996, at the age of 76, came shortly ahead of a scheduled appearance at the Blandford Festival.