Peter Hart, my happy-chappy friend, mentor and father figure.

We met some 12 years ago when I first stood as Councillor for Whitehill. He was the Conservative father and our campaign king pin, always there always encouraging and supporting old and new!

I became very fond of him, his mild humorous manner and his crazy ways, like deleting every text message and every email he received often without reading them!

Election day will not be the same without him, he always vigorously took on the most obscure roles that no one wanted to do and drove us all mad, making us door knock until 10pm every single election day. He wore us all out and really got stroppy if we weren’t on the job, or ’’knocking up’’. His main job was taking down the results at the count, huddled in the corner with the clipboard, with a big cheesy grin on his face when he knew I had won the County seat. He cried and I cried! It was fabulous.

He was so proud of the new candidates that we had found this year for the Mays election knowing that fresh, talented and enthusiastic people were needed to give the party and the electorate a good future.

In the past few months we discussed every seat allocation and every decision taken at the Council, always guiding and supporting party values and policies. I was delighted to share my first Party Conference experiences with him and then I listened intently to his accounts of all the years he had attended. My goodness he could talk but I enjoyed his company.

He was speechless when I read the Conservative Party Chairman’s letter to him, he was touched and I was very, very honoured to read it to him just before he passed away.

As our friend he shared in our wedding as of course he introduced Peter and I, so he will always have a special place in our hearts.

God bless you Peter, your hard work now over for this life.