Family and friends of Anthony Hurst, a dear friend and dedicated fundraiser in Bridport, will hold a memorial service tomorrow.

Anthony Hurst died on New Year's Day aged 82.

He was a familiar face around Bridport, particularly at the Tiger Inn where he held a number of art auctions to raise money for charity.

Anthony's life in brief

As a child, he would visit his grandparents' home at Hole Cottage in Lyme Regis as a child, playing in the fields and helping on the farm down the road.

When the war was over his family moved to Bournemouth, his father was ill and in a sanatorium there and his mother got a job as a matron in a private school and Anthony went to school there.

At the age of nine in January 1948, Anthony went to the prep school of Christs Hospital after his mother was successful in finding a governor who could send him to the independent school in West Sussex.

His mother later became a matron at Rhode Hill, a girl's domestic college and finishing school and they moved to Lyme Regis.

A knee injury spoiled Anthony's plans to become a soldier so he got a job with BP but the want to join the Army never left him. So, he decided to join through National Service where he thought the medical might be less stringent. They didn't find anything wrong with his leg and in August 1958 he joined Salamanca Platoon at the Regimental Depot of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment at Topsham Barracks in Exeter.

He went to Mons Officer Cadet School at Aldershot and received the Queen's Commission in December 1958. He then embarked on the SS Devonshire at Southampton where they went ashore at Gibraltar and Malta and docked at Famagusta. Anthony commanded 9 Platoon and patrolled looking for EOKA, a nationalist guerrilla organisation fighting a campaign for the end of British rule in Cyprus, but there were no contacts.

He had a brief posting to Belfast during the troubles after his daughter Karin was born and was posted to Germany when his son Robin was born, then on to Malaya and jungle warfare training at Khitai Tinnghi.

He decided to leave the army at 31 and got a job with Unilever in personal management before working for the County of Avon based in Bristol. He then went on to run courses on leadership, motivation, team building, negotiation, presentation skills, time management, communication and more.

His great joy was painting and took part in Dorset Art Weeks as well as using his paintings to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund and the Not Forgotten Association.

Richard and Sam Payne-Withers, friends of Anthony's, have set up a Just Giving page to raise money for Anthony's two favourite charities in lieu of flowers.

The memorial service On Friday, January 29 at 1pm will be streamed through Zoom for all those who cannot make it.

To find out more and to donate, visit Just Giving