Obituary: Richard Sandbrook

* Richard Sandbrook, environmentalist, sustainable development advocate. Died age 59.

Richard Sandbrook, 59, was a founder of the British arm of Friends of the Earth and one of the most influential environmentalists of his time. He became a leading advocate of the notion of sustainable development, and his advice was widely sought by governments, aid agencies and high-profile individuals such as Prince Charles and Bob Geldof.

He helped to found Friends of the Earth (UK) in the early 1970s and was its director from 1974 to 1976. In 1989, when the Prince of Wales was planning his television documentary Earth in Balance, Sandbrook was one of the team of experts brought in to advise on the film.