John ‘Scotty’ Fraser, one of the first Farnham Residents councillors, has died aged 86.

Mr Fraser represented Upper Hale on both the town and borough councils from 2015 to 2019 and served on Farnham Town Council from 2019 to 2023.

Known as Scotty to many, he was renowned in the council chamber for his outspoken views and for asking difficult questions in pursuit of the truth. He was dogged in his efforts to secure the best outcomes for the area he served.

He became a councillor in retirement following a career as a structural engineer, spending most of his working life with the architectural and engineering firm Norman and Dawbarn.

His work took him around the world, including projects building hospitals and schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; a university in Jamaica; and the first secondary school in the Falkland Islands. Before the Falkland Islands Community School opened in 1992, the islands had no secondary school and, at 11, children generally went to boarding schools in the UK.

Mr Fraser met his late wife, Janet, who died in February 2025, when they were both working on the construction of the BBC Television Centre in White City in the 1950s. Janet was one of the first women to be a registered architect with the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The couple lived in Weybridge before moving in the 1970s to Alma Lane, Hale, where they spent the rest of their lives.

Both became Scout leaders, with Mr Fraser particularly popular for taking Scouts climbing and hiking in the wilds of Scotland.

He loved hiking in remote areas and his children, Karina and Justin, spent much of their childhood exploring the mountains and hills of north Wales with their father, who first visited the area aged 16 and returned repeatedly. He enjoyed a challenge and did what Karina described as “crazy things”.

She recalled: “One time I organised for my husband and my dad to go on a Spitfire flight simulator. I noticed Dad was very good at it. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘it’s like when I used to fly planes in South Africa’. He had a friend there with a plane who’d let him fly it. He also bought an old VW Beetle in Cape Town and drove it back to the UK!”

In retirement, Mr Fraser continued to travel and rekindled hobbies including photography and painting, but he remained restless and keen to do more. This led him into local politics, standing for both Waverley Borough Council and Farnham Town Council as a Farnham Residents candidate, whom he saw as the most effective way of getting things done.

Mr Fraser died just before Christmas. He leaves two children and two grandchildren, Isabella and Aidan. His legacy, Karina said, was teaching them to have “a strong will, to be curious and to be kind”.

His funeral will take place at Aldershot Crematorium at 1pm on Friday, February 6, followed by a gathering at Daniel Hall, Farnham. All are welcome.