"A fine Parliamentarian, an excellent cabinet minister and, above all, a good friend."

Those were the words used by Baroness Thatcher to pay tribute to former Southend West MP Paul Channon, who has died at the age of 71.

A spokesman for the former Prime Minister, said: "She has been very saddened by the news and her thoughts go out to members of the family."

Channon was made Lord Kelvedon when he retired from the Commons in 1997.

In the 1980s, he held a variety of senior ministerial positions including both Secretary of State for transport and trade and industry.

Henry Paul Guinness Channon, an heir to the brewing family, became the MP for Southend West in 1959 at the age of 23 when he was still an undergraduate at Oxford.

He took over the seat from his father, the diarist Sir Henry "Chips" Channon.

His grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Iveagh, had also represented Southend in a dynasty which stretched back to 1912. The Countess of Iveagh had been one of the first woman MPs in 1927.

From his childhood, Paul Channon mixed with royalty and he was a close friend of Princess Margaret. They both owned homes on the island of Mustique.

It is widely believed Princess Margaret, who was a regular vistor to the area, visited Channon at his constituency home in Leigh.

Despite Channon's links with royalty and the landed gentry, he proved he could have the common touch.

He annually let hundreds of Young Conservatives from Southend West and the surrounding constituencies invade the grounds of his country home, Kelvedon Hall near Brentwood, for the Kelvedon Kaboodle.

After wandering among them for a while, Channon would retire to the peace and tranquility of the Georgian house.

He was first given a ministerial post in Northern Ireland in the Heath government of 1970 to 1974, partly due to the Guinness name's Irish connections.

At the time he was opposed on constituency grounds to the Govern-ment's plans for an airport on the Maplin Sands But as a member of the administration, he was unable to speak against the plan.

Instead, he would stay away from the House when it was being discussed, although it was well known that Bernard Braine, then Tory MP for South East Essex, was speaking on behalf of them both.

When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, Channon was originally out of favour as being one of the "wets" and retired to the backbenches and the board of Guinness.

Earlier the same year he had tried for selection as one of the country's first Euro-MPs, but was beaten to the North East Essex nomination by David Curry, now Tory MP for Skipton and Ripon.

However, he was restored to Government in 1981 as Arts Minister.

He finally became a cabinet minister, at trade and industry, in 1986, after the Westland helicopter affair prompted the resignation of Michael Heseltine.

In the same year he was to suffer a terrible personal tragedy when his 22-year-old daughter Olivia was found dead from drink and drugs in a room at Christ Church College in Oxford.

Despite the devastating blow to his family, Channon continued his political duties with vigour.

Southend people also felt for him and his family as, a few years earlier, a young Olivia had loved her annual visits to the carnival fair at Chalkwell Park.

Everyone who knew him paid tribute to the way he stoically soldiered on through that deep sadness with never a public word of complaint.

The way he coped despite hysterical media attention earned him the respect of many colleagues, not least Prime Minister Margaret Thatch-er.

After the 1987 General Election, Channon moved to the Department of Tran-sport. It was a sombre roll call, including the King's Cross Tube station fire, the M1 air crash, the Lockerbie outrage and the Clapham rail crash.

After Lockerbie, Mrs Thatcher told him to still go on holiday to Mustique, but he was attacked for "insensitivity" in the Commons by John Prescott.

He was replaced by Cecil Parkinson, rehabilitated from a former scandal, who was faced with the Marchioness disaster on the Thames a few days later.

However, Channon was the toast of railway enthusiasts the world over when he rejected British Rail's closure plans for the spectacular Settle and Carlisle line.

He returned to the backbenches and was never able to achieve his other ambition, to become speaker of the House of Commons.

When he announced his retirement before the 1997 election, many people in Southend wondered wheth-er Channon's son Henry or stepson Valentine Guin-ness, who had been interested in politics, would have been selected to carry on the dynasty.

Paul Channon was also a board member of the Guinness Trust, which remains one of the largest providers of social housing in Southend.

He was made a life peer in 1997 and adopted the title Baron Kelvedon of Ongar. In 2003 he was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Southend, an honour also held by his grandfather and grandmother.

It was his last public appearance in the town.

He married Ingrid, the former wife of his cousin Jonathan Guinness, in 1963. They had three children, Olivia, Henry and a younger daughter, Georgia.