A BURY bobby died from a heart attack 20min after assisting in an arrest in Manchester city centre.

Police Constable Robert Nathans had undergone three open-heart surgery operations for a hereditary arterial cholesterol condition.

He was driving a troop-carrier along Portland Street when he complained to a senior officer of illness.

He was told to pull over to allow a driver change but within seconds he collapsed at the wheel. The van ploughed into an oncoming articulated lorry.

The 49-year-old officer was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital where nurses broke down in tears in grief for the popular beat bobby.

GM Police colleagues lined the road at Bury Cemetery on Monday in tribute to the cop who lived his life for the force. He was buried in the Jewish section.

PC Nathans' wife Miranda told the Bury Times how her husband's heart condition was minor, and corrective surgery was occasionally required to clear the arteries of a build-up of cholesterol.

"Bob died where he wanted to," said Mrs Nathans. "He was on duty and in his uniform. If you had asked him, that was what he would have wanted." PC Nathans joined the police 21 years ago and served his entire career at Bootle Street in Manchester where he became popular with fellow officers and members of the public.

Mrs Nathans said: "Bob was a traditional police officer. He never wanted promotion as he loved being at the grass-roots level of policing.

"Nothing phased him and everything he did was by the book. There was no grey area in his life. It was either black or white, right or wrong - no in-betweens. He always gave 101 per cent to whatever he did."

PC Nathans was working towards a master's degree in criminal justice at Portsmouth University. He had already graduated from the Open University with a BSc in police and policing studies.

He was a long-serving member of the International Police Association and was instrumental in introducing the American-style police utility belt that is now in use.

His wife added: "Bob had four more years to go with the force and he intended to set up a consultancy service to advise police on every aspect of their job. He had many friends in different countries and was always keen to monitor advancements in overseas police forces in the hope they could be adopted back home. He was a policeman 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

PC Nathans, who lived in Walmersley, Bury, had received several police commendations.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.