A MAN known among the travelling community for his campaign to get two permanent caravan sites in Stourport has died, aged 79.

Rudolphus Boswell led calls in the late 1970s for sites in Watery Lane and Lower Heath to be rented exclusively to travellers.

His daughter, Rebecca Connelly, said the campaign was his “biggest achievement”, adding: “He played a big part in the lives of travellers in the area”.

She explained: “There are a lot of travellers that live on those sites now and they owe it to people like my dad.”

Mr Boswell, along with his father-in-law and fellow traveller, Ernest Loveridge, appeared on the front page of the Stourport News in 1979.

They had presented a petition to town councillors opposing plans to evict travellers from the Lower Heath site.

Mrs Connelly said her father was “a true old-fashioned Roman Gypsy”. She went on: “He never ever changed his ways. He carried on living in his caravan on Hartlebury Common and would never go and live in a house.”

Mr Boswell sang in pubs around Wyre Forest and also played the accordion.

“Music was a big part of his life,” Mrs Connelly added. “His favourite song was China Doll, which he would always sing to my mom. People would travel for miles to hear him sing.”

Born in The Potteries, Mr Boswell moved to Stourport with his family as a child. He lived with his wife, Jean, and worked as a fruit picker, scrap metal merchant and road surface layer during his career.

Mr Boswell died at home on Sunday, March 29, surrounded by family, following an eight-year battle with cancer.

His funeral was held yesterday at Wilden All Saints Church, Stourport.