PETER Tyrer, founder and chief executive of the African Children’s Fund, has died after a car crash in Kenya last week.

The 64-year-old, of Cow Lane in Longworth, set up the charity five years ago with his wife Dee. He died in Nairobi on Friday during a three-week charity mission.

Born in Clevedon, in Somerset, to Rita and Edward Tyrer, the family moved to Merseyside when Mr Tyrer was three weeks old. As a child he was educated at Bishop’s Court in Formby before going to Austin Friars, in Carlisle.

Mr Tyrer met his wife Dee while he was working for Oxfam as area organiser for Bristol in the late 1970s.

The couple married in Bristol in 1987 and moved to Oxfordshire when Mr Tyrer was given the role of fundraising director for the charity.

Mr Tyrer was also the treasurer of Abingdon Chamber of Commerce, vice-chairman of Wantage Liberal Democrats, and the chairman of governors at Longworth Primary School.

After leaving the charity the former teacher set up a development charity consultancy firm with his wife and five years ago launched the African Children’s Fund. The charity raises money to feed and support youngsters in East Africa.

It currently supports children in six schools in Kenya, three schools in Zimbabwe, and a nursery in Tanzania. It also helps refugees in Uganda.

The couple’s charity also has shops in Witney, Faringdon, Grove and Lechlade.

He ran as a Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate in Liverpool and against Labour’s Tony Benn in Bristol.

Wife Dee, 54, said her husband had been driven by his passion for helping people.

She said: “His main raison d’etre was to help the poor and his work in Africa was really important to him.

“We set up the charity because we wanted to help where other, larger, charities can’t. He was very kind and he managed to touch lots of people’s lives.”

Mr Tyrer loved spending time in Africa and visited the continent at least three times a year.

He leaves behind his wife Dee and their two children Becky, 22, and Adam, 20.