KENNETH Coulthwaite, known as Ken, died peacefully on May 3 at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital after a short illness.

Born in Lancaster, Lancashire, on December 10, 1929, Ken joined the accounts department of Storey Brothers after leaving school and spent two years in the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a pay clerk.

In 1954 he married Maureen and they were together for more than 50 years until she died in 2008.

In the late 1960s, Ken moved to Hythe, near Southampton, to manage a newsagent’s and within a short time bought the business, later acquiring another shop in the area.

He was a Royal Mail postmaster for 21 years until retiring in 1990.

Ken’s passion was training and racing greyhounds and he had a string of successes in the 1980s at Brighton and Hove Stadium. His dogs all used the breed name ‘Kenmo,’ from Ken and Maureen, who was known to her family as Mo.

In 1982 his dog ‘Follow the Fleet’ won the Goose Green trophy at White City Stadium in London. The race was in aid of the South Atlantic Fund set up to help veterans and their dependants who had suffered distress due of the Falklands War.

After retiring to Bournemouth, Ken and Maureen visited the Falklands in 2001 on the cruise ship Black Watch and presented the trophy to the Falkland Islands Museum in Port Stanley.

The couple did not have children but were devoted to their dogs. Ken would often keep his greyhounds as pets after they retired from racing, spending happy hours walking them in the New Forest.

He suffered a stroke in 2005 and spent the last few years of his life at The Fearnes care home in Bournemouth. One of his greatest pleasures was when the Bournemouth-based voluntary group Caring Canines brought greyhounds to the home.

His funeral was held at Bournemouth Crematorium.