My father, Jim Woodward-Nutt, who has died aged 90, was a television engineer who began his career at the BBC. He went on to set up the first colour television service at a British university, and joined Racecourse Technical Services as head television engineer, working on its coverage of horse race meetings all over the UK.
Alongside his TV work Jim was a busy local politician with the Liberal and then Liberal Democrat parties, serving as a councillor in Aberdeen for five years in the 1980s, and was a champion of consumers, including as a member of the Scottish Consumer Council.
He was born in London, the only child of Dorothy (nee Muriel), an artist, and Arthur, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Aviation.
After attending Bedales school in Petersfield, Hampshire, he gained an electrical engineering degree from the University of Southampton before joining the BBC in 1957 as an apprentice television engineer in London, rising to become a studio engineer by 1964, and later spending a number of years in charge of the technical aspects of the BBC Television Theatre.
Jim left the BBC in 1971 to work as a senior television engineer at the University of Aberdeen, where he designed and installed their colour television service – the first of its kind in a UK university. In 1985 he moved to Racecourse Technical Services, where he was eventually in charge of 26 engineers and six outside broadcast units, before retiring in 1995.
Jim was an active campaigner for the Liberal party, and was part of the election team that helped to secure an unexpected victory for Eric Lubbock, later Lord Avebury, at the 1962 Orpington byelection in Kent.
He was elected as a Liberal councillor to Aberdeen city council in 1980 and served until 1985, relishing any opportunity to use his campaigning skills. While giving evidence at a planning inquiry into the extension of Aberdeen airport, he illustrated the potential impact of noise by setting off an alarm clock, resulting in a reproach from the chair of the inquiry and a front-page photograph in the Evening Express in Aberdeen.
Jim had an interest in consumer affairs, co-founding the Aberdeen Consumer Group in the early 70s before becoming a member of the Scottish Consumer Council and a member of the National Federation of Consumer Groups, of which he was chair from 1990-93.
He had a passion for wind and water mills, and in retirement managed the Shipley and Outwood windmills in Surrey on a part-time voluntary basis, milling wheat to produce flour for sale to visitors. Between 2008 and 2010 he was chair of the mills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
He married Anne King in 1959 after they met at a Liberal party meeting. They separated in the mid-80s but never divorced. He is survived by their four children, me, Jo, Kate, Ian and me, three grandchildren, Calum, Clare and Elsie, and a great-granddaughter, Lily.
