LEADING figures from across Hampshire came together at the funeral of a former High Sheriff who was awarded the OBE.

Maldwin Drummond’s outstanding record of public service over the past 50 years was praised at the service at historic All Saints Church in Fawley.

Mr Drummond, 84, was a former Official Verderer of the New Forest and an ex-chairman of leading organisations in the district.

Mourners included the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson, and his predecessor, Dame Mary Fagan. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, New Forest MP Julian Lewis and the current Official Verderer, Dominic May, were also there.

Draped in the family flag, Mr Drummond’s coffin arrived on a rustic horse-drawn waggon.

He grew up on the family’s Cadland Estate but stayed with relatives in the USA during the Second World War and went to Yale University. Mr Drummond joined the Verderers in the 1960s and was appointed Official Verderer in 1999. He was also head of New Forest magistrates as well as chairman of the New Forest Committee and the New Forest Consultative Panel.

In 1980 he was serving as a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire when he was chosen to be the new High Sheriff of Hampshire.

Ten years later he was awarded the OBE for public service and services to conservation after playing a leading role in the successful fight to stop the proposed Fawley B power station being built.