A FORMER Mayor of Winchester and war hero has died aged 101.

Major Dougie Covill MBE DCM was the mayor in 1987-88 died on November 15.

Last year the Chronicle covered his 100th birthday and he quipped “it was not a good year to turn 100”.

As a Conservative, he served on the city council in the 1980s and 1990s, retiring in 1996, and lived at Ladycroft near Alresford before moving in recent years to Storrington in West Sussex.

Dougie was born in Croydon and joined the Army under age in 1937. His regiment, the 10th Royal Hussars (PWO), had recently returned to Tidworth from a tour in India and due to his small stature he was nicknamed ‘Chota’.

The 10th Hussars, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were sent to Normandy in late May 1940 in an attempt to support France but they were heavily outgunned by German forces and after fierce fighting near the Somme the regiment withdrew from Brest on June 19.

In late 1941 the 10th Hussars sailed via the Cape to North Africa. Dougie was by now a tank troop sergeant and in this front line role he fought in all the 8th Army’s battles in the Western Desert, Libya, Tunisia and Italy from then until the end of the war in May 1945. He was wounded twice and mentioned in despatches. In 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous bravery.

The regiment moved first to Austria and then to Lubeck on the Baltic coast of Germany. Dougie met a German girl, Inge Jeske. They married in 1947 and had two daughters. In 1959 he was commissioned as a Quartermaster in the 10th Royal Hussars. Dougie retired from the Army in 1970.

He played an active role in the affairs of the county and beyond, as a leading Freemason in England and Germany, chairman of the Distinguished Conduct Medalist’s League and county president of the Royal British Legion.

Inge died in 2014 but Dougie took pleasure in seeing his daughters and their husbands, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Dougie was the 990th mayor of Winchester and it is unclear if he was the longest-lived.

A death notice in the Hampshire Chronicle said: “Now reunited with his beloved wife Inge. Caring Father, Grandfather and Great Grandfather.

“He will be missed by all who knew him.”