A WIFE today paid a loving tribute to her husband, a former chairman of Darwen magistrates and a school governor, who died this week after a fourth stroke.

Margaret Gardiner, 70, of Duddon Avenue, Darwen, had spent the last six years caring for Bill, 70, following his previous stroke.

Today, Mrs Gardiner said of her husband of 48 years: "He was a lovely man and a people's man. He loved helping people.

"He will be missed by many - but mostly by me."

Mr Gardiner, who leaves two grown-up sons and five grandsons, always lived in Darwen.

He attended St Cuthbert's Primary School and then the old Sudell Road School.

He met his wife to be at the age of 17 and they married four years later in 1956.

Two years of National Service with the medical corps was the only interruption to a career in the finance department of companies in Manchester and Lytham St Annes.

In 1970, Mr Gardiner, who was also involved with Darwen Labour Party and Hollins Grove Congregational Church, became a magistrate on the Darwen bench and later its chairman.

In the early 1990s, when the bench merged with Blackburn, he was again the chairman for a short period.

He also sat on the committee which appointed magistrates in Blackburn and Darwen, as well as being a governor at Darwen's St Cuthbert's Primary School and Tullyallan School.

Neville Cordingley, chairman of the Blackburn, Darwen and Ribble Valley magistrates' bench, said: "It was quite a shock when we heard he had died.

"He was very keen magistrate. He was very strict but also considerate."

A funeral takes place on Tuesday. The cortege to Pleasington Crematorium sets off from the Co-op Funeral Service in Hacking Street, Darwen, at 12.30pm.