WORCESTER charity worker and magistrate Trid Sarkar has died at his city home at the age of 68.

Mr Sarkar was born in Calcutta, in 1933, but came to Worcester as an engineering apprentice at Archdales, in 1951.

After returning to India for several years in the 1950s, he and wife Janet returned to Worcester in 1962, and brought up their two sons, Dilip, a police officer and Second World War author, and Neil, a sales manager.

Mr Sarkar was a pioneering volunteer race relations worker, founding with his wife the Worcester International Club in the 1960s and the International Centre in 1980.

He was the first person to organise English language classes in the city for Asian women, and was made Worcester's first coloured magistrate in 1980.

In recent times he founded the Friends of Swanivar, to support work being carried out to improve the quality of life in the Indian region.

The grandfather-of-five, who had heart disease and diabetes, died on Saturday and a funeral is due to be held in the New Year.