THE angels will be lined up in Heaven today to have their picture taken, because Tom Bader, the doyen of Worcester’s photographers, has arrived in town.

He’ll sit them down in orderly fashion and set to work and when they think it’s all over and start to disperse, they’ll hear the familiar cry: “Just one more.” And that’s the image they’ll choose for the album.

Because Tom, who has died in Cheltenham General Hospital after an 18-month battle with cancer, was a perfectionist. A job was never finished until he was happy.

He was a friend and colleague of mine on the Worcester Evening News in the 1970s, but quit the photographic department to start his own business and rapidly became one of the area’s best-known commercial and portrait photographers. Invariably dapperly dressed he virtually cornered the market in schools’ shoots.

As Russ Mason, of the King’s School, Worcester, said: “I have lost count of the number of pupils and colleagues who have filled Tom’s lenses over the years and marvelled at his ability to organise not just one class, but a whole school with a single blast on a whistle for a group photograph. Oh that we could all command such authority.”

Tom Bader, who was 68, was born in Ashford, Kent. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a local photographer with a diary that included much work for London newspapers.

The buzz of the newsphoto appealed to the young Tom and he decided to switch to press photography. In 1970 he joined the staff of the Worcester Evening News and stayed for four years. Whereupon he left to run his own commercial business, first in The Hopmarket, Worcester, then Friar Street and Britannia Road, before finally moving the studio to his home in Stephenson Terrace.

Mr Mason said: “Tom was a generous benefactor to King’s over the years and sponsored cricket teams and rugby teams.

“Three of his children, Rupert, James and Rebecca attended King’s and although Freddie went to Ampleforth, he too had many friends among King’s pupils.

“We remember Tom as a consummate professional and as a parent, but most importantly as a friend.

“He will be missed by the King’s family of schools.”

Worcester solicitor David Hallmark struck a chord when he said: “My abiding image of Tom in his photographer’s mode and mood would be his panache and playfulness as he organised the target group often from atop a wobbly ladder to attend to his directions as he prepared to deliver the professional picture in which he and they would be proud to have been involved.

“By his generosity of spirit, Tom gave so much pleasure through his photographic records of occasions. That future we should have shared together is now deeply saddened. We will miss his magic ingredient of making smiles out of the solemn and memories out of moments.”

Ever the professional, Tom even organised a photograph to accompany his obituary.

He told his wife Ruth: “If they need something, I quite like this one.”

And she duly handed it to me.

There will be a requiem mass for Tom Bader, who is survived by Ruth and their four children, at St George’s Roman Catholic Church, Sansome Place, Worcester, at noon on Tuesday, February 16.