COLOURFUL Black Country character Bob Jew - known to many in the area as "The Major" - has died, aged 85.

Halesowen-born Mr Jew spread his wings as a young man - developing his wanderlust first during his National Service after the Second World War, when he was based in Transjordan and fought the then infamous Zionist group the Stern Gang in Palestine.

He became an army boxing champion in Egypt.

Mr Jew then headed to Nigeria, where he was first a cocoa bean buyer for Rowntree Fry and Cadbury and later general manager of a chain of general stores.

Mr Jew, who grew up in Alexandra Road, Halesowen, with his parents, Arthur and Freda, sister Pauline and brother Ted, often lived and worked deep in the African bush and had to deal with some scary situations - confronting gun-toting workers during a strike, being held up for cash and becoming the target of a juju (African black magic) curse.

"Dad was not a man to be bullied and, fortunately, he had the gift of the gab - so he could talk his way out of anything," said his daughter Louise, Jew aged 58, of Hagley, a journalist who often works for the Stourbridge, Halesowen and Dudley News.

"He befriended many Nigerians, to the extent that they made him an honorary African chief and presented him and our mother with an ornate fly swish which they were photographed with when they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary nine years ago.

"When we lived in Warri, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh took a fancy to our house, a rather lovely colonial place on the banks of the River Niger - and gave our family 24 hours notice to quit so he could take ownership of it.

"It caused quite a turmoil for Mum and Dad as they packed up everything to move to another house owned by the company he worked for.

"The chief never actually lived there - but just put up a sign saying 'Festus Okotie-Eboh owns this house'.

"Several years later, during the Biafra war after we left Nigeria, Festus Okotie-Eboh was found dead in a shallow grave."

On another occasion, Miss Jew recalls local juju followers hanging a bottle containing a substance cursing her father on the gates of the compound where they lived - but the former Halesowen Grammar School boy promptly took a stone and smashed it.

Mr Jew married Barbara Lucas, from Cradley Heath, in 1956 and she joined him in Nigeria after finishing a stint teaching at a finishing school in Switzerland.

She gave birth to Louise in Ibadan, Nigeria, and the couple's son, Nigel, was born in Sedgley just over a year later.

When they returned to the Black Country in the mid 1960s, Mr Jew had a number of jobs before starting a commercial sauna bath at the family's home in Brook Street, Stourbridge.

Son Nigel said: "Dad started several businesses in the area over the years, including one I used to help him with cleaning carpets in people's homes, "His distinctive moustache and military bearing earned him the nickname around Stourbridge of 'The Major', although he never actually held that rank.

"He was certainly no shrinking violet and we had loads of fun with him throughout our lives - he was the life and soul of any party and talked so much that some people gave him another nickname, which was Bob Jaw."

Mr Jew, of Whittington Road, Norton, who also leaves grandchildren Luke, Eva, Joe and Danny, died on November 10 - which would have been his late wife's birthday - at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, where he was being treated for bronchopneumonia.

A celebration of his life will be held on Friday December 4 at 12.20pm at Stourbridge Crematorium and his family is urging guests to wear their Sunday best in any colour - and a flower in memory of Mr Jew.