JACK would have loved it. By 1.30pm the Jersey hotel bar was packed with friends and family, the beer and wine was flowing and the air buzzed as those inside swapped stories of business and football.

It was a little over an hour after Jack had finally been laid to rest and the sombre reflection of a funeral service had gradually given way to a tribute to an extraordinary life lived to the full.

And that was the way it had been intended. At the entrance to the opulent dining room at the Hotel L'Horizon, a mile down the bay from the church, was a banner which read "Celebration of the Life of Jack Walker 1929-2000".

Multi-millionaire football bosses rubbed shoulders with the amateurs from Jersey's First Tower, businessmen with Jack's mates from the golf club. They were Jack's kind of people and it was a fitting send off for a man whose life and deeds had touched people from all walks.

The tranquil setting of St Brelade's parish church, nestled on Jersey's most beautiful bay, was something of a contrast to the environment that many there remembered Jack in : Ewood Park on a Saturday afternoon, the bar at Pleasington Golf Club, the boardroom at his steel company or at home as the much loved head of his family.

The man who had caused such a stir in so many things he turned his attentions to in life had managed to create one more.

The public and media interest in the funeral of such a well known figure had inevitably made the build up to the service a little out of the ordinary at 1,000-year-old St Brelade's, with a couple of burly security men at the church gate, a PA system that had taken all morning to rig up and a marquee erected in anticipation of hundreds of extra mourners. Locals lined the church walls to say their own farewell to an adopted islander. Despite the scale of the event, the service itself was a simple one - a remembrance of Jack the husband, dad, grandad, brother, work colleague and pal.

The address by David Brown, who had worked with Jack in the Walker family business and became a close friend, paid tribute to the warmth, humour, and dedication of the man he and others at Walkersteel knew simply as JW. "His life and friendships touched all of us and we all treasure our memories of a very special man."

Mourners heard Jack described as being "a very humble and at times shy man."

Mr Brown also described Jack as someone who demanded as much from those who work with him as he gave but who never lost the common touch.

"He was very lucky but he worked very hard for that luck. As the old adage goes you make your own luck."

Despite his multi-million pound fortune Jack was still a very down to earth man, he said.

Mr Brown spoke of Jack's humble beginnings as the son of - in Jack's words - a 'tinbasher' and a cotton mill worker.

Making money in a then depressed Blackburn was not easy but Jack and brother Fred's "blood and toil" made it one of the country's most successful family firms.

He said Jack was determined to make the firm the biggest and the best - first the biggest in Blackburn, then the North West, then the UK, then Europe. And he succeeded.

In 1970, he recalled how Jack had persuaded Buckingham Palace to ask the Duke of Edinburgh to visit Blackburn to open Walkersteel's giant new building at Guide.

"The photographs of that day remind me how proud Jack and Fred were but the proudest of them all was Annie (their mother)."

Despite employing hundreds Jack knew everyone's name at the site and about their families.

Jack had riches beyond the wildest dreams of most but his tastes remained those of a Blackburn lad from the poor part of town.

Jack's love of sport and his passion for Blackburn Rovers had been a huge part of his life.

As a youth he had struggled to scrape together the money needed to get onto the Blackburn End to watch his heroes: decades later he was to watch from his own box.

"To those fans at Ewood he was the best.

"Uncle Jack could and did make dreams come true."

And Mr Brown stressed it wasn't just Blackburn Rovers that Jack showered his generosity on and made substantial donations to a raft of charities and causes.

"And he always asked that the gift was anonymous."

The taxi driver who took me back to the airport knew the Walker family well and had often driven Jack to his favourite haunts on the island.

"All the drivers knew Jack. We used to have a real laugh with him - I used to gamble odds and evens with him on the mileage!" said Gary Thompson, whose next fare was picking up Fred from the reception.

"I didn't go to his funeral but when the hearse went past I took off my baseball cap to pay my respects. He'd have appreciated that."