John Heard

Under his leadership the society achieved great success, its assets swelling ten-fold, and his many years of experience earned him the post of national president of the Chartered Building Societies Institute in 1980.

Born in London on August 8, 1923, Mr Heard grew up in Putney Heath – where his father was head gardener on a local estate – and he attended Wandsworth Central School.

When he left school he joined the Co-operative Building Society, but with the start of the Second World War in 1939 he signed up for the RAF. He served as a navigator on Dakotas, flying missions from Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, and was later posted to Burma until he was demobbed in 1946.

Mr Heard returned to the Co-operative and worked his way up, travelling around the country for work, until he eventually moved to the Bristol and West Building Society in 1955. He was appointed as the Bristol firm’s deputy general manager, and was responsible for installing its first computer.

It was also there he met his future wife Heather, a secretary. They married on September 21, 1957, had two sons, David and Steven, and remained in Bristol for the next decade.

Mr and Mrs Heard moved to Branksome Park in 2003, but Mrs Heard sadly died in 2009, two years after the death of their son Steven. In 2011 he moved to Gloucestershire.

The funeral service will be held today at Cheltenham Crematorium, South Chapel, at 1pm.