Honorary Alderman and humanitarian John Prevett OBE dies (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Honorary Alderman and humanitarian John Prevett OBE dies

12:52pm Monday 8th February 2010

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Honorary Alderman of Reigate and Banstead Borough and former mayor John Prevett OBE, has died.

Mr Prevett, who served as a councillor on the old Reigate Borough Council and then Reigate and Banstead Borough Council for more than 40 years, died on January 31, aged 76.

A Labour councillor, he was active in charity work and was an avowed humanitarian.

He was especially involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and was a prominent local member of Anti-Apartheid and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Mr Prevett, whose family worked on the railways and whose father was stationmaster at Redhill, served in the Friends Ambulance Service during his National Service in the 1950s, because he was a conscientious objector to military service.

He worked mostly in Austria, helping Hungarian refugees displaced by the Second World War.

After this, he worked in the field of actuaries, qualifying as the country's youngest ever actuary at the age of 22.

He was involved in designing a lot of high-level pension funds, including internationally, and later became a partner in his actuarial firm, Bacon and Woodrow.

As a humanitarian against apartheid, he worked through the Canon Collins Trust to help refugees in South Africa with aid and education, and continued that work after apartheid finished.

Locally, Mr Prevett represented various areas of the borough as a councillor, and was also active in the RNIB, CAB and the Colman Institute, while on the national scene he received an OBE in 1974 for his work advising parents of Thalidomide children in their fight for compensation.

Married to Joy, and with two sons, Steven and David, Mr Prevett had six grandchildren, and a non-identical twin brother, Dr Peter Prevett.

His son Steven said simply he was “very proud” of his father.

His friend John Barton of Reigate Constituency Labour Party said: “John was a remarkable humanitarian who was respected and admired by many local people.

“He was highly respected all-round and across the board. He will be greatly missed.”

A spokes woman for Reigate and Banstead Borough Council said: “In July 2006 the council conferred the title of Honorary Alderman on John Prevett in appreciation and acknowledgement of his eminent services to the borough and its predecessor, and as an expression of the high esteem in which he was held.”

Mr Prevett served on the former Reigate Council from 1963 to 1969 and from 1971 until 1974, and then on Reigate and Banstead Borough Council for ten years from its inception in 1974, and then from 1986 until 2006.

He was mayor of the borough from 1998 to 1999.

His funeral will take place at St Paul's United Reformed Church, Patchlands Road, Redhill, on Wednesday , February 17, at noon.

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