Parishioners, friends and family came together on Wednesday to say a final farewell to a popular priest.

The Reverend Derek Lynford Sears died on Wednesday, August 17, following a short illness. He was 80 years old.

Born in Charnock Richard, Chorley, Rev Sears spent much of his life in Preston and was the minister of St Michael's and All Angels, Egerton Road, Ashton, Preston, until his retirement in 1990.

He was educated at Cambridge, and went on to Wycliffe Hall Theological College, Oxford, where he met future wife, Pat. The couple married in 1955.

In the early 1950s, he returned to the North West to take up a post of curate at a church in Blackburn before moving to the former St Paul's Church, Preston, now home to Rock FM radio station.

Following a stint in Burnley as a vicar, the couple moved to Jamaica where the Rev Sears was the chaplain and vice principal of St Peter's College for four years. After a brief return to the UK they went back to Jamaica for another four years, where the Rev Sears was Rector of Morant Bay.

In 1978, he took up his final post at St Michael's and All Angels and was priest in charge at the former St Mark's Church, now private flats.

He was instrumental in creating a parish hall at the church, a listed building, during the 1980s.

Retired church warden, Ernie Nightingale, said: "He was very devout and studious man who was well-liked by parishioners and very well thought of."

A funeral service for Rev Sears took place at St Leonard's CofE Church, Penwortham, yesterday followed by a cremation at Preston Crematorium.

Mrs Sears said: "He was a very sincere man who had a very good sense of humour and worked hard. He certainly would have wanted people to celebrate his life."

The couple lived in Penwortham and had no children.