TRIBUTES have been paid to a director of Clitheroe Auction Market and former president of Ribblesdale Rotary Club after he passed away aged 89.

George Clarkson was born in Burnley and served in the Navy during the Second World War.

The great grandfather-of-eleven met his wife, Edna, 86, in 1946 and the pair married three years later at All Saints’ Church in Burnley.

After being demobbed after serving on an air craft carrier a year after the war ended, George joined the family cotton manufacturing firm, Sutcliffe and Clarkson, a position he held until contracting angina in the late 1970s.

The father-of-three moved to Withgill in the Ribble Valley in 1981 and had been living in Whalley for the past 10 years.

He joined the Clitheroe Auction Mart as company secretary after moving to the borough, later becoming a director, a position he held until his death.

Away from work, George was a past president of both the Ribblesdale and Burnley Rotary clubs, a member of the Burnley Freemasons and a former vice chairman and trustee of East Lancashire Hospice.

He served as a Justice of the Peace in Burnley for 25 years, a time which also saw him chair the Burnley bench. He also enjoyed spending time with his three grandchildren.

His wife Edna said: “I have been overwhelmed by all of the cards and flowers that I have been sent and it just shows how well respected he was in the community.

“We had a lovely marriage and he will be a huge loss to the family. He had a wonderful sense of humour and he was admired by so many people.”

Daughter Jill Hartley said: “My father lived his life to the full and he was one of nature’s gentlemen.

“We are an extremely close family and we are very proud of his achievements.”

A cremation service will be held today at Burnley Crematorium from 2.20pm and a service celebrating George’s life will follow at The Sanctuary of Healing in Langho.