ONE of the last links to Brighton’s bohemian, artistic past has died aged 87.

Gordon Anderson was the long-time companion of the late William de Belleroche, who held court at his seafront house in Kemp Town in the 1950s and 1960s.

A host of artists and assorted celebrities regularly gathered at the Arundel Terrace home of Count Willy. He inherited the French title from his artist father, Albert.

Gordon, always known as Andy, was Willy’s secretary and chauffeur. They met at the American Legion in Paris in 1956 when Andy was posted to France as part of the Eisenhower post-war troop deployment. The handsome and naive US sailor, who had been raised in Everett, a small town in Washington state, was impressed by the unconventional, fur-coated Willy.

The friendship pitched the good-natured Andy into a louche world where artists mixed with actors, writers and journalists. Among them were Duncan Grant, a member of the Bloomsbury Group who painted Andy’s portrait, film stars such as Hermione Gingold and Hermione Baddeley, novelist Robin Maugham, and Patrick Macnee, famed as the star of the Avengers TV series.

Willy also had interesting tenants, including Viscount (Peter) Churchill, a war hero cousin of Winston, the DJ Annie Nightingale and her then husband, the journalist-cum-novelist Gordon Thomas.

After Willy’s death in 1969, Andy continued to entertain many of Willy’s friends. He was noted for his fine cooking and hospitality and, over time, developed into something of an almost-English eccentric himself.

Mr Anderson, who was born on December 15 1929, died at the Royal Sussex on September 5 after a long illness.