Former Marlborough shopkeeper and leading Rotarian Dennis Wakefield lost his fight with cancer and died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

He had run a newsagents and confectionery shop since moving to Batheaston in 1981.

Mr Wakefield, 73, was told just before Christmas that he had cancer of the lung but he was able to continue working in his shop in Batheaston for several more months until he became too ill.

He had ran Wakefield’s Newsagents in the shop next to the library in the High Street in Marlborough from 1971 until he bought Maurden’s News in Batheaston in 1981.

Mr Wakefield was a leading member of the Rotary Club in Marlborough and became very involved in its charity work.

Born in Great Somerford, Mr Wakefield went to Malmesbury Grammar School.

Rather than National Service, he served three years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). He developed a love for military vehicles, especially tanks.

After his Army service Mr Wakefield worked as an engineer at Westinghouse in Chippenham until 1965 when he decided on a complete career change and he and his first wife Viv, who died in 1995 aged 52, took over the Golden Arrow Filling Station at Froxfield.

He ran the filling station for about six years and then took over Maynards newsagents, tobacco and sweet shop by the library.

Mr Wakefield is survived by his second wife Maureen, his son, two step-sons, four grandchildren, three great grandchildren and by two brothers and a sister.

The funeral will take place next Tuesday, August 2, at 2.30pm at St John’s Church at Batheaston.

There will be family flowers only but donations in Mr Wakefield’s memory would be welcomed for the William Budd Oncology Unit at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.