THE last remaining original band member of The Troggs, Howard “Ginger” Mansfield, has died.

His family, who were at his bedside when he died on 19 November, said he had suffered from ill health during the course of this year and then contracted pneumonia in hospital.

The 76-year-old and his mates Ronnie Bullis, Reg Ball (Presley) and Dave Wright were the four-man band that gave The Troggs its name, but Howard, the lead guitarist, left the Andover group in 1965, less than a year before its number one hit Wild Thing catapulted them to stardom.

In Ginger’s unpublished autobiography the musician detailed his distaste for what he called money-grabbing managers which was the last straw for him to leave The Troggs and move to Basildon.

He was invited back into the band some time later with a phone call from Ronnie telling him they had a “dead cert number one” and would he come back to play.

Ginger wrote: “I can’t be certain about this but maybe the dead cert hit Ronnie phoned me about was Wild Thing, which five or six weeks after his phone call, got to number one.

“I can remember the day Wild Thing made number one and I’d be a liar if I was to say I wasn’t a bit sick not being back in the group with the boys again but at the same time I was really pleased for them that they’d finally made it.”

Ginger and his brother Morris, known as Morrie, originally joined Andover’s music scene in a band called the Emeralds in the late 1950s when he was a bricklayer.

The lead guitarist and father-of-two wowed the likes of the future Troggs bassist Pete Staples who first heard him play in 1959 in Etwall Hall and inspired him to be rocker.

Pete said: “I saw Ginger playing electric guitar with his brother, Ronnie and Bruce Turner in the Emeralds. I had never heard an electric guitar and it blew my mind.

“That is what started me off on electric guitar and rock and roll.”

In a post-Troggs life, Ginger and Morrie uprooted and moved to Australia with their families for three years before returning to the UK in 1970.

Howard’s family said he was very proud of his time with The Troggs and continued to play live music for years to come.

In the last eight years, Howard and Morris returned to Andover once or twice a year for a reunion with old friends and band members at the White Hart which was nicknamed The Jolly Boys.

This included Andover’s Ten Feet Five band member Jonny Walker who called the brothers "pioneers of the town’s music scene".

He said: “I am so glad now that we all reacquainted ourselves in recent years when we met up on a couple of occasions in Andover.

“Yes, we played in rival bands but there was respect between all the players in those days and let's not forget, the Mansfield Brothers, among a few others, pioneered the local rock scene in Andover.”

Ginger’s funeral was held at Basildon Crematorium on 8 December, where many people came to pay respects to the musician, friend and father.

Howard’s son, Steve Mansfield said: “We would like to say thank you to David Day, Jonny Scovel and Geoff Day [life-long Andover friends] for taking the time to attend dad’s funeral along with Pete Staples for allowing dad to add a chapter or two in his new book, and all of the Ginger’s friends that attended the Jolly Boys reunion over the years.

“And of course a special thanks to Ginger’s brother Morris who always supported dad.

“Dad was always respected by all, loved by many and his musical influences will live on through his family. I’ll certainly miss him.”