FORMER councillor Bryan Denington has died - just weeks after his wife passed away. He was 89.

Mr Denington represented the Killams and Mountfield ward in Taunton on the former Taunton Deane Borough Council from 2003 to 2015.

He died peacefully at home on July 31 following a short illness, 11 weeks after losing Joan, his wife of 67 years.

Mr Denington was on the Taunton Deane planning and standards committee for many years and played an active role in the council’s governing Conservative group.

He was educated at Letchworth Grammar School, in Hertfordshire.

He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during the Suez Crisis on board the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable, before being commissioned and serving on Prince Phillip’s ship HMS Magpie.

On leaving the Navy, he attended Exeter University, where he gained a BSc in chemistry and met his wife-to-be, Joan Shute, who was a nurse at Exeter Orthopaedic Hospital.

Mr Denington worked as an industrial chemist, mainly with the American chemical company DuPont, in Northern Ireland, Chester and Cambridge, before retiring to Taunton in 1991.

He leaves four children, eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

The private family funeral is on Monday, August 17, at St Andrew's, in Aller, near Langport.

Donations should be sent to Marie Curie, or c/o Leonard E Smith Funeral Directors, 10 Magdalene Lane, Taunton, TA1 1SE.