Peter Diggle

Although he had an early privileged background, it belied his unconventional and genuine interest for those he met and worked with and from came a life-long involvement with charitable causes.

He was born in London but at the age of six weeks moved to Old Malton when his father was appointed as land agent to the 7th Earl

Fitzwilliam, beginning a connection with the county that lasted the rest of his life.

He was raised at Eden House, near Malton, where some of his earliest memories were of riding with the Middleton, Sinnington and Derwent hunts. He also played rugby for Yorkshire Schoolboys, while having to endure his mother cheering for him from the back of a chauffeured Rolls-Royce.

He was educated at Stowe before going to Trinity College, Cambridge where, during his second term he was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, in December 1941. But an explosion which caused blast damage to his eyes meant he spent most of the war convalescing or on administrative duty, although in 1948 he saw action in Malaya.

He was later stationed in Germany during which time horses became one of his major interests, riding with many of the great German dressage trainers. In 1952 he resigned his commission.

From 1953 until 1966 he was a director of a number of Bradford-based wool traders, including JM Potter, RC Carr and Senior & Haigh under the umbrella of the second Lord Barnby's Aire Wool Group. But as the industry contracted and increasingly came under the control of speculators, Major Diggle had had enough.

In 1968 he created the Diamond Investment concept, an investment programme that hedged against the twin perils of inflation and currency devaluation. He retained his link with the diamond trade until he retired in 1986.

He was involved in many charitable causes from the early 1960s from the time he was approached by his fellow Old Stoic and Guards officer Richard Carr-Gomm, founder of the Abbeyfield retirement homes for the lonely. Major Diggle began fundraising for Abbeyfields, becoming the founder and patron of the society's Harrogate branch, and it was through his persistence that three homes were set up in the spa town.

When he moved to London in 1964, he spent 10 years as a prison visitor at Wormwood Scrubs, a calling he took very seriously.

On returning to Yorkshire in 1979, he quickly saw that his local village church at Foston, near to his home at Thornton-le-Clay, was struggling to raise funds to repair the roof. So he brought together a series of enthusiasts of the Rev Sydney Smith – rector of Foston from 1806-1829 and an acclaimed wit and reformist of his time – including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie. Not only was sufficient money raised for the repairs, but the Sydney Smith Association was also founded, a registered charity that now thrives and supports causes of which Smith would have approved.

It was a typical venture by Major Diggle who always preferred action over talk.

In 1959, he married Anna Sylvia Freein von der Lancken-Wakenitz, with whom he has two sons, Richard and William, and all of whom survive him.