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Princess Margaret is welcomed to the Rycote Centre by Councillor Bill Pritchard during her visit to Derby on June 28, 1973

Princess Margaret pictured by a Derby Telegraph photographer inside the Rycote Centre, with Councillor Bill Pritchard and a lady-in-waiting

Bill Pritchard was first elected to the Derby Borough Council in 1963 and served as a councillor for ten years. During this time he became chairman of social services.

In June 1973 he welcomed Princess Margaret to the Rycote Centre and invited her to choose a gift from a selection of articles made by daily visitors to the centre. She choose a turquoise cuddly dog and playfully pulled its long tongue before handing it to a lady-in-waiting.

In 1974, Bill became a county councillor for the Friar Gate ward and served until 1982 when he decided to stand down to devote more time to his job as national organiser and regional officer of the Amalgamated Engineering Union for which he worked tirelessly until his retirement in 1990.

His wife, Mary, also a councillor, died in 1995 and Bill died in 2002, aged 76, following a fall at his Normanton home.

At the time, MP and cabinet minister Margaret Beckett, a long-standing friend and colleague in the trade union movement, paid tribute, saying: "His understanding of the roots of Derby's Labour movement was profound. But, more to the point, he applied his understanding and his socialism to his own behaviour in his everyday life.

"There must be literally thousands of people in the city who have benefitted from Bill's help and understanding and who will share the grief of his family at this loss."

Philip Whitehead, then Derby's Euro MP, spoke of the help Bill and Mary gave him when he was first elected as an MP in 1970.

"He was a wonderful combination of a diligent and active trade unionist and effective local councillor. He was a thoughtful and humourous man," said Mr Whitehead.

Bill's father made a name for himself as a boxer and was known as Billy Pritchard, the fighting postman.

• Bill Pritchard

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County:  Derbyshire