ANTHONY Ogilvie, highly-respected president of the West Worcestershire Conservative Association, died on Wednesday, after a short illness.

Mr Ogilvie, aged 54, was born in London and went to school at Sutton Valence, Kent. After graduating from Southampton University, he qualified as a barrister.

He went to work as a legal officer for the Confederation of British Industry and later became an assistant to its director-general, Sir Campbell Adamson. He had also practised law in New York for several years.

Most recently, he was lecturing in law at a local college and was also a magistrate on the South Worcestershire bench. He was a governor of the Grove School, Malvern.

Mr Ogilvie lived in Malvern with his mother Ruth after they moved to the area from the Channel Isles about a decade ago.

Mr Ogilvie served as chairman of the West Worcestershire Conservative Association for three years, before becoming pres- ident.

During the last election, he acted as political agent to Sir Michael Spicer, the MP for West Worcestershire.

Sir Michael said: "Anthony was a very great chairman of the association. He was also one of my closest friends in politics. I cannot express how much my wife Ann and I will miss him and how much we grieve for Ruth, his mother."

John Stephenson, clerk to South Worcestershire Magistrates, said: "Anthony was a relative newcomer to the bench, having joined in 1999. He had a background in the law, which he was able to put to good effect and he was also an intelligent man who grasped concepts quickly. He had a good sense of humour as well. I'm sure he will be missed very much; his colleagues will be shocked by his death at such a young age."

The funeral service is at Malvern Priory at noon on Friday, November 2, and will be followed by private burial. No flowers but donations to League of Friends of Malvern Hospital.