The workaholic wonderman of south Essex, Doug Acres, has died a few days after his 77th birthday.

Happy days - wheelchair-bound Doug Acres tends the plants in his garden

The former GP, magistrate and church leader had been wheelchair-bound for three years and was nursed and cared for at his home in Thundersley by daughter Mary Jefferies.

He will be cremated on December 14, with a service that day for family and close friends at his beloved Battlesbridge Free Church, where he was pastor until ill-health forced his retirement.

On January 25, a memorial service will take place at Crowstone St George's United Reformed Church in Westcliff. The former Westcliff High pupil was born in Greenwich and arrived with his family in Thundersley in 1943.

He studied medicine at London Hospital and was a prominent member of Thundersley Congregational Church, where he organised clubs and a drama society.

He often roared around the steep, hilly, wooded Thundersley Glen on an old motorbike, with young church members taking turns to ride pillion. He did not often mention this when, years later, he was chairman of Rochford magistrates and also a deputy lieutenant of Essex.

Dr Doug, as so many knew him, practised at Great Tarpots from 1953.

His offices and memberships are almost too many to list. His voluntary work included his being consulted at various times by the Government and the Home Office in particular.

He was chairman of the Council of Magistrates, a member of the parole board, medical officer for 30 years of Remploy. He was a governor of Bullwood Hall and of the King John School and the Sixth Form College close to his home of the past 36 years, Thundersley Lodge.

He lived here with wife Joan, who died four years ago after a long fight against illness, mother of their three children.

It is here that he sat every week for many years to write a punchy column for the Echo, and where daughter Mary has devoted years to looking after him and encouraging his development of part of the grounds into a haven for the wheelchair gardener.

His many works for the community, including renowned devotion to victims of the Canvey flood disaster of 1953, led to his being awarded the OBE in 1981 and the CBE a few years later.

Published Tuesday December 4, 2001