BUILDING society boss Eddie Shapland was a "human being of the first order" the Rev Geoffrey Nadine told mourners at his funeral.

Mr Nadine, former minister at Colne Road Methodist Church, Burnley, and family friend told a packed Ightenhill Methodist Church that the Marsden Building Society chief executive was a very special individual.

He said: "Eddie was the same wherever and whoever he was with. He had met various members of the royal family including Princess Diana.

"He had met the high and mighty, but he was not high and mighty. He was humble and ordinary in the best sense of the words.

"When he arrived early at work there would only be him and the caretaker on the premises. It was not the caretaker who brewed up for them both, it was Eddie."

Mr Nadine talked of Mr Shapland's support for Burnley Football Club and his work as a volunteer steward.

Mr Shapland had been a member of Colne Road Methodist Church and had attended Elim Methodist Church where he was in the youth club, boys' brigade, a Sunday school teacher and member of the table tennis team.

In business, Mr Nadine said he was shrewd, but also abided by Christian principles and was a man of the utmost integrity and honesty.

He said: "His son Mark summed it up when he said he was there for us. Long after the pain has gone you will be left with lovely memories of a lovely man."

Mr Shapland, 51, was found hanged at his home in Little Tom's Lane, Lanehead, on January 15. He left his wife Janet, mother Emily and children Mark and Kay.

The funeral service was followed by cremation at Burnley.

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