PATRICK BASHFORD,

who has died aged 82, was professor of classical guitar at the Royal College of Music and a Vogue model.

Bashford was educated at St Paul's School in London after which he went to Spain to learn flamenco guitar from the gypsies in the caves of Granada and thereafter spent several years in Canada as a lumberjack, a rancher, and a tin miner before returning to England to study classical guitar with Adèle Kramer at the Guildhall School of Music. With his extraordinary good looks, droll wit and gregarious charm he was in demand at the smartest London parties and seemed to know just about everyone &endash;the English equivalent of a boulevardier &endash; who, when strolling down King's Road would stop every few feet to chat with his myriad of Chelsea acquaintances from the young photographer Tony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon) to Alan Bates, then making his acting debut in Look Back in Anger, to the folk guitarist/singer Tim Feild (later Reshad Feild, mystic and author) who busked at Luba's Bistro. When Tim left the restaurant and joined Tom and Dusty Springfield to form The Springfields, the most popular singing group of the day, Bashford took over his friend's 'job' at Luba's, replacing folk with flamenco. It was during one of these gigs that he was approached by an agent who asked him if he'd like to make a lot of money quick. His agreement was predictable and soon thereafter he became the highest paid male model in Britain.

During his modelling days he squired the glamorous singer Eartha Kitt all over London, and the beautiful model Sandra Paul became his fiancée until she broke off the engagement to marry Robin Douglas-Home (she is now Lady Howard, the wife of Michael Howard, the ex-leader of the Conservative Party). Vogue magazine sent Bashford to New York to be photographed by most of the top photographers in the fashion business.

In 1962 Bashford married the Uruguayan opera singer Ana Raquel Satre, known as Mimi, and became the head of the guitar department at the Royal College of Music, a position he held for 25 years, along with teaching at various schools including his alma mater, St Paul's.

Patrick and Mimi separated in the 1980s, when she and their son Roderick took residence in Paris, and for the last 25 years of his life Bashford lived with his partner Ros Hartmann in London.

He is survived by the aforementioned Ros, his wife Mimi, his son Roderick and two grandsons.