Community champion Melville Watts OBE has died in the hospital he helped save for the Forest.

The tireless fundraiser, who was known affectionately as ‘Mr Lydney’, died this morning.

He had been in Lydney hospital - which he helped raise more than £1 million to support - for several weeks. His death came shortly after he celebrated his 87th birthday by cutting a cake.

For the past few days his family have been holding a bedside vigil for the prominent member of the Watts family, which can trace its business roots in the town back more than 150 years and was once one of the Forest’s biggest employers.

As news of his death started to spread, people lined up to say his death would be a huge loss to Lydney.

Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper said: "When I think of Melville Watts, I think of Lydney Hospital and the Friends.

“He was a tireless champion of the Hospital, the Friends and indeed of the town of Lydney itself.

“Our community was truly a better place for his presence and his loss will be keenly felt.

“At what will be a difficult time for them my thoughts and prayers are with his family and close friends."

Earlier this summer supporters gave Melville who was president of the Friends of Lydney and District Hospital a round of applause after learning he was too ill to attend the annual fundraising fete.

The healthcare champion, who received an OBE from Prince Charles for his community work in 1993, had fought to save the hospital from closure.

On July 30 he was last seen in public when he attended a ceremony in his wheelchair to rename a ward ‘the Melville Watts OBE Outpatients’ Department’.

Mr Watts was former managing director and an honorary president of the Watts Group.

The family, which pioneered the Red and White buses just before the Second World War, recently sold Watts Tyres but still have extensive business interests in the Forest and beyond.

Mr Watts was well known for attending practically every funeral of employees past and present.

He was the most Senior Verderer in the Forest and patron of the Lydney branch of the British Legion. He served in Burma during the war and also served 27 years as a local magistrate.

But he is best known for his charity work and often dressed up to perform at community events and would sometimes bring a fairground organ or fire engine.

Until recently he was still making arrangements from his hospital bed.

But over the past few days visits have been restricted to family members. He leaves second wife Jane, children Sarah-Jane, Andrew and Simon, twin brother Cecil, sister Joyce and seven grandchildren.