A former Southampton mayor who ‘championed’ the city long after serving as a councillor has died aged 95.

Tributes have flooding in from across the city for Jack Candy who passed away peacefully last Friday.

As a councillor, mayor and then as a campaigner Jack was responsible for a number of achievements including the Peace Fountain in Andrews Park and he brought the first tram to the city for restoration in 1975.

Twice former mayor and Labour coucnillor Derek Burke said: “It is very sad. I knew Jack very well. He was a dogged campaigner. He did a first class job campaigning for the Peace Fountain.

"He always championed for Southampton’s cause. He didn’t give up when he stopped being councillor either. His heart was in the right place and he believed what he was doing.”

Jack Vernon Candy was born in 1921 in Swaythling, Southampton. He started his working life as an engineering apprentice in the Supermarine Spitfire works at Woolston before the war, and carried on during the bombing in 1940.

Jack was from 1945 an active member of the Labour Party and it was through the party he met his wife to be Irene Richards. 

Jack married Irene in 1948 at the Southampton registry office at the Civic Centre and they were happily married for many years. They went on to have four children, two boys and two girls.

Jack returned to industry after a stint in the territorials. He later worked for 20 years as a manager at IBM at Hursley.

Irene worked as a civil defence instructor and then welfare officer before entering politics.

The couple lived at the Bassett area of Southampton from the 1950’s onwards. 

Jack was a city councillor for 17 years until he stood down from the council in 1988, having been first elected for Sholing ward in 1971.

The couple have been described as the ‘power couple of the ‘70s and ‘80s’ and the ‘Clinton’s of Southampton’.

In 1986, following the mayoralty of his wife Irene in 1984, he himself became the 764th mayor. When he became mayor he had a special replica of a 15th century mayor's hat made.

During his term he was keen to solve the problem of disabled access to city buildings.

In 1987, as mayor he said Southampton should learn from Hong Kong in its cleanliness and said he was determined to clean up the city.

In May that year Jack made the controversial move of leaving the Labour group on the council and sitting with the SDP-Liberal Alliance councillors as an independent just days after retiring as mayor.

He stood down from the council in 1988 but carried on campaigning for many years on numerous issues. He was a chairman of the City of Southampton Society and was on the committee of the Southampton Commons and Parks Protection Society.

In 1998 the Echo featured Jack and his wife Irene on their 50th wedding anniversary. It said the couple’s ambition was to put out the ‘sparkle in the city’ with their City of Southampton Society campaign for fountains in public parks.

Jack was quoted as saying the key to their happy marriage was “A common belief in the importance of being part of the community and serving the community”.

It was Jack Candy’s idea that the City of Southampton Society should fund a memorial to the Southampton based members of the crew of RMS Titanic who perished in the 1912 disaster.

Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith said: “I knew Jack over many years. I remember Jack very well from his campaigning on the protection of Southampton’s parks.

"What I liked about him was that as he got older he never gave up. He was a councillor that did it for the right reasons. He continued championing Southampton long after he finished being one of the councillors.” 

Leader of the city council, Simon Letts said: “It’s always sad to learn of the passing of a former mayor of the city. I wish his family well at this sad time. There will be a civic memorial service to him at a suitable date in the future.” 

Alec Samuels of the City of Southampton Society said: “Jack was a man of principle. After he left the council no annual Court Leet went without a cogent presentment from Jack, drawing attention to some failure by the City Council. No abuse or dereliction of duty missed his eagle eye.”

The Peace Fountain at the top of the Lime Walk in the Central Parks, a wonderful splashing water feature standing in a primary position, is Jack’s most lasting monument. On his own he raised some £70,000 or more towards the construction, no mean feat.

The Hawthorns Centre on The Common, on the site of the old zoo, was Jack’s idea and which he brought to fruition. The need for a suitable Spitfire memorial was near to his heart.

The City of Southampton Society and Southampton Commons and Parks Protection Society benefited enormously from his tireless activity.

City of Southampton Society Membership Secretary, Sarah Chorley, said: “I first met Jack Candy in 1970 at IBM Hursley where he was head of the Records Department and where I worked with him for six months.

"He was a good boss, even-tempered and fair. It was a happy office in which to work and included several interesting people who had worked with him at Supermarine.

"In the 1980’s we met again at a university event and on learning of my interest in the City of Southampton Society he joined us.

"He became variously the Society’s Treasurer, Newsletter editor and Chairman and the Society’s Peace Fountain would not exist without his persistent, persuasive fundraising and determination that it should become a reality.

"He was a great asset to the Society, a perfectionist for whom nothing less was acceptable and we owe him much.”

There will be a private funeral service for Jack to be attended by family and friends.

Jack is survived by his four children, four grandchildren and his one great-grandson who was born last year in Atlanta, USA.