AN uncommon man who was a champion of the common man.

A wit always at his most pungent in tirades against conventionality; a fearless and pioneer reformer; an original thinker; a writer who always had something to say and knew how to say it; a dramatist compared frequently and not unfavourably with Shakespeare; and above all a rich and rare personality.

So said the Malvern Gazette's editorial fifty years ago today in tribute to the playwright George Bernard Shaw, who had died the day before aged 94.

Shaw's name had been closely associated with Malvern since 1929, when an annual drama festival was founded in his honour by Sir Barry Jackson, for which Shaw was to write no fewer than eight plays over the years.

His erect figure, usually dressed in a Norfolk suit, was a familiar sight in the streets of Malvern and striding along the Hills.

In 1936 he planted a mulberry tree in Priory Park, an event recorded by movie cameras, and he was a frequent visitor to Lawnside School.

He was a fervent opponent of quarrying on the Hills but at the same time also supported the idea of a funicular railway.

A visit with Sir Barry Jackson to the Malvern Marionette Theatre led to Shaw's admiration for the puppets created by Mr and Mrs Waldo Lanchester.

In 1949 he wrote a short play for them - the first play for puppets to be written by a leading dramatist - Shakes v Shaw, depicting a meeting between the rival playwrights.

Shaw had requested two pieces of music be played at his private cremation service, held at Golder's Green, Libera Me from Verdi's Requiem and Elgar's We are the Music Makers.

He told Lady Astor: "I want my ashes mingled with my wife's. After that you can do as you like."

Back in Malvern, the flag on Belle Vue Island was flown at half mast.

James Watkins, the chairman of Malvern Urban District Council, said: "His love of Malvern was exemplified by his presenting and personally planting a mulberry tree in the Priory Park which will for many years to come be a reminder of his association with the town".

The Malvern librarian, Mr J W Lucas, told the Gazette the connection with Malvern had begun some years earlier than the first Malvern Festival in 1929.

Shaw and his wife generally visited the Malvern House Hotel for a few weeks each year in April and May.

Mrs Shaw had said the great attraction was that in Malvern nobody took any notice of them and G.B.S. could get on with his work.

In 1929, when he organised a theatrical exhibition at Malvern Library, Mr Lucas had asked Sir Edward Elgar to open it.

"We were thus able to bring Shaw and Elgar together on the same platform - a unique occasion, the significance of which was not missed," he said.