MOURNERS packed into St Kenelm's Church in Sapperton on Friday afternoon for a memorial service which celebrated the life of a much-loved Frampton Mansell man.

Martin Neville, 86, who had many interests in life, including sailing, writing books and campaigning for countryside conservation, died at home on April 29 after a long illness.

At the memorial service, which was conducted by The Reverend, Pepita Walker and Canon Andrew Bowden, friends, and family including his actress wife Daphne who is well known her otter conservation work, paid heartfelt tributes to Martin.

Afterwards friends of the Neville’s were quick to sing the praises of the service.

Mary Haynes, said: “I think it was very moving and it really captured his considerateness and the fact that he was really a kind man.”

Jane Cussons, who starred with Daphne in British romantic film, Summer in February, said: “ It was a beautiful service and Daphne was absolutely terrific.”

John Cresswell –Turner said: “I think Martin would have massively enjoyed it - I bet he was chuckling away - what a loss he is to all of us.”

Canon Andrew Bowden said: “We local people recognised and valued Martin. Someone who enriched us an individual, even in a sort of illusive way. Not opinionated, not centre staged but kind courteous and thoughtful.”

Martin was a great sailor, he renovated a number of traditional boats and kept a skiff or punt on the lake at his house in the Golden Valley.

Martin’s considered his greatest achievement in life was successfully campaigning to stop the ease of access to child pornography on the internet.

He identified potential problems of parental control on personal computers and became instrumental in the work to protect children from predatory adults. He put a lot of energy into raising awareness of the Internet Watch Foundation, which allows people to report criminal online content in a secure and confidential way.

He also rallied the court of the Drapers company to support a crusading charity called Childnet.