Farewell to charismatic Leighton Buzzard estate agent John Wilkinson, who has died aged 88

Charismatic John Wilkinson was also the youngest county councillor in the UK when elected to Beds County Council at the age of just 22, where he strived to improve the lives of local people.

Over the decades he brought run-down properties and renovated them. He acquired the derelict Peacock Market and won prizes for his imaginative restoration of the site to what it is today.

Brought up in Heath and Reach during the war, he went on to Dunstable Grammar school and then returned to Leighton Buzzard where he joined Larry Connell at Connells estate agents.

He was then called up for two years compulsory National Service, where he was picked out for Commissioning and then volunteered for Active Service and deployed to 4th Bn Kings African Rifles at Jinja in Uganda.

As a young platoon commander he fought in the Maa Mau anti terrorist campaign in the jungle and mountains. He was ensign to the colour when the Battalion ‘trooped the colour’ to the new Queen Elizabeth in 1954.

On returning to the UK he married his sweetheart Racheal Brown and he rejoined Connells, then a very small firm. They bought a derelict cottage on the green at Heath and Reach and modernised and it, they started their family too.

His evident talent for deal making enabled him to progress rapidly and he and Larry Connell grew the firm to become one of the UK’s largest estate agency businesses. By the 1970s he became the majority shareholder in the firm driving expansion forwards opening new departments and offices. The firm was very successful.

He played rugby for Leighton Buzzard, rode point to point horses and hunted with the Whaddon Chase. He and his wife Racheal moved to a farm in Stewkley in the early 1960s where they bred some outstanding race horses and were very active in village life. A popular and immensely sociable family he was very active in the community.

In 1977 he left Connells and started his own business, several of his former colleagues joined him and the new business took off, growing to 10 offices and departments across five counties in just 10 years. At the very peak of the property boom he sold out to Prudential.

Five years after the sale, the Prudential exited estate agency after multi-million pound losses.

Disappointed by the impersonal style of estate agency offered by such major institutions, John's son Simon reopened the offices in 1992, with John supporting, as the Wilkinson Partnership was born.

John retired to Mousehole in Cornwall where he bought and renovated several properties including Keigwin Manor, where famously the Spanish landed a fleet of 3 ships as an advance party to the Armada. As they renovated the house, he found cannon and musket balls from the battle.

Subsequently he researched the story and wrote a book ‘The Pirate and the Prophecy’.

However, the good weather called and he and Racheal moved to the south of France and spent 20 happy years, sailing his yacht and racing their horses. They enjoyed a wonderful quality of life and returned back to the UK to be closer to family in 2015 where they entertained old friends and family and retold old stories. Racheal died three years ago.

A family spokesman said: "A man of great charisma, there are so many stories about his life and his adventures and travels. Well known as being a strong character with a temper, he often took matters into his own hands, but did so with good grace, impeccable manners and a sense of duty. He was a stickler for detail, honesty and integrity and always lead from the front."

John leaves behind four children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.