A FORMER Southampton magistrate who also ran four pharmacist shops has died aged 91.

Leslie Guy was a regular on the city's Monday bench at court - but is better remembered by relatives for his famous Linctus 289 concoction, which staved off the Guy family's coughs and colds for years.

Born in the city on October 7, 1913, Leslie grew up attending Taunton's School, in Hill Lane, before heading off to Portsmouth College to study pharmacy.

On his return to Southampton, Guy turned entrepreneur opening a string of chemists in Lumsden Avenue, Shirley, the Bitterne triangle, Foundry Lane, Freemantle, and Millbrook.

He met his wife Elsie, who worked in a children's hospital, in 1939 and they set up home in Chilworth. They had three children, Elaine, Raymond and Peter.

The community-minded man, who was also a mason and chairman of the League of Friends at the Royal South Hants hospital, became a magistrate in 1964.

He worked at the city's court, in London Road, until he became the Monday bench chairman and had to retire aged 70, in 1983.

Daughter Elaine Withall said: "He was a very forward-going, ambitious person. He had a very good cough medicine called Linctus 289, named after the number of the shop in Shirley.

"He made it for 30 years and it was a real hit with the family."

For the last few years of his life, Leslie, who had moved to West Wellow, was fairly ill and died in a nursing home in the New Forest.

His funeral will take place on Wednesday in the East Chapel of Southampton's crematorium at 11.40am.