A DECORATED army commander and former county councillor from Chilton Candover has died, aged 101.

Colonel Kenneth Savill died at his Chilton Manor home, where he had lived since 1953.

"Kate", as family and friends knew him, served as a county councillor and held the appointment of High Sheriff of Hampshire. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire in 1965.

He was educated at Winchester College and for the last five years of his life was the oldest surviving Wykamist.

Colonel Savill was commissioned into the 12th Royal Lancers in 1926 and commanded his own regiment in Italy in 1944, for which he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

He later joined Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Gentleman at Arms. He commanded them as their lieutenant and was given a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for his efforts.

He took a lively interest in local and family affairs and had many friends of different generations whose lives he greatly enhanced with his humour and generous nature. None more than his two daughters, five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, with whom he was playing hide and seek with on the day he died.

"Kate" Savill died on December 27, 2007. He married Jacqueline Salusbury Hughes in 1935. She and a daughter predeceased him.