Mr Adams, a former chairman of the Leamington Society, died peacefully in his sleep at home in Cloister Way last week. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago.

In the early 1990s, he led the campaign group to victory against Warwick District Council's plans to sell off the historic building to developers.

As a result, the district council decided to renovate the Pump Room and turn it into the home of the town's library, museum and art gallery.

Born in London in 1927, Mr Adams was educated at Worcester Grammar School and served in the army for two years.

After he came out of the army, he worked in industry in Oxford where he became the city's youngest Conservative councillor and was a trade union chairman.

He then went on to study economics, politics and sociology at Birmingham University and at Nuffield College in Oxford helped research and write two books about industrial relations.

The academic moved to Sheffield with his young family to lecture at the university, then came to Leamington to work at Ashorne Hill Management College near Moreton Morrell.

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There he trained managers from the British steel industry and also spent time in Italy training managers of Fiat Italia. He was made vice-principal of the college and retired at 61, taking on a post-graduate diploma in art history.

He met and married his wife Diana in 1953 and they had five children and three grandchildren.

She said: "He felt very strongly that the Pump Room should be for the people of Leamington and that the library and art gallery should be there. He went to every meeting about it and saw it through to the end.

"He never tried to be anyone but himself and had an enormous compassion for Leamington, which we both loved very much.

"When he was diagnosed with cancer, he took a deep breath and said: 'I have had 78 years of exceptional health and a very interesting and rewarding life, how can I grumble?'"

Mr Adams continued to serve on the Leamington Society committee and carried on his art history studies until his death.

Speaking on behalf of the society, Marianne Pitts said: "He was very well-respected and will be much missed by an awful lot of people.

"He was a positive and right-thinking man with a great sense of humour and backed the society in trying to save the historic buildings of Leamington."

A quiet family funeral will be held next week as Mr Adams had requested.