KINGSLEY Williams, who has just died aged nearly 94, was best known in Winchester at the senior partner of Dutton Gregory & Williams, where he worked from 1956 to 1991.

He was the partner who dealt with the legal work at Conder, which was a major employer. Its chief executive Robin Cole remained a life-long friend and squash partner. “We were equally bad at squash”.

Kingsley was a member of the Labour Party from when he was at university. He was a Winchester city councillor for the St John Ward from 1966 to 1974 (an area covering Winnall and the Brooks area of the city centre). He enjoyed canvassing and elections, which still sounds unlikely. He led the Labour Group and chaired the planning committee. At the re-organisation of local government in 1973 he was elected to Hampshire County Council, representing a Southampton division. He led the 24-strong Labour Group at the county council until his appointment to chair the Wessex Regional Health Authority in 1975. He was proud of his roles as chairman of the Wessex Regional Health Authority, on the NHS Supply Council and the Wessex Institute of Public Health Medicine during 1975 to 1996. In 1982 he was sacked as chair of the RHA by Kenneth Clarke, the health minister, when Mrs Thatcher decided that no RHA chairs could be members of the opposition. He immediately led the sacked chairmen round to the BBC to be interviewed on Radio 2. Kingsley was already a member of the Council of Southampton University from 1977 and chairman from 1987 until his retirement in 1998.

The university gave him an honorary doctorate as thanks for his hard work. He was also the chairman of Winchester School of Art during the negotiations for the link to Southampton University. He was able to enrol on the first year of their new part-time course in history of art and design and although pressure of work meant he only completed one year he was able to give five of his surviving colleagues their degree certificates five years later. He particularly enjoyed the study tours to Florence and The Netherlands. Family holidays had always included visits to Ireland, France and Italy for their art galleries, stately homes and gardens, but his chief joy was sailing. He had learned to sail as a teenager, when the family settled in Fowey after his parents retired from teaching in Ghana. All three children were born in Accra but were sent home to England aged three, four and five, before the days of vaccinations it was not considered safe for European children. Kingsley and his brother Mike continued to board at Kingswood School in Bath but in World War Two were evacuated to Uppingham. To their horror their father came out of retirement to teach there when younger men were called up. Kingsley read law at Cambridge, after a brief flirtation with medicine, adding more friends including Norman Webb later of International Gallup. “I wish I could play honky-tonk piano like Norman”. He did his articles with a firm of solicitors in Cornwall until asked by a cousin to join his firm in Winchester.

Retirement meant learning to bird watch, weeding and enjoying his garden, trips to Ireland, Italy and Spain, visiting friends and family, reading and talking. Talking about politics, science, art – he was interested in everything.

By Eleanor Williams and Patrick Davies