FORMER Bournemouth teacher Norman Arthur Adams died on August 3 in Claremont, California.

A proud Yorkshireman throughout his life, Mr Adams was born in Leeds on June 10, 1922.

He served in the Royal Air Force for six years and fought in the Second World War. On D-Day, he was serving on a ship which was operating a new radar system when it was torpedoed, leaving him treading water in the Channel for six hours awaiting rescue.

It was also during the war that he married his wife Barbara Quinn, on July 5, 1943.

After he was demobilised, Mr Adams attended Weymouth Training College and trained to become a teacher.

He moved to Bournemouth in the early 1950s, living in the Northbourne area and taking a teaching position at Moordown St John's School, while his wife became staff manager at Bobby's department store in the Square.

There he earned the respect of his colleagues and students, many of whom would take the time to visit him in later life when he moved abroad.

He was strict and a stickler for the rules, but had a softer side underneath, which led to many in the town remembering him fondly.

Eventually promoted to deputy headteacher, he took early retirement as he was disappointed with the direction his career was taking, and he emigrated to the United States in 1966 with his wife and their daughter Bobbie.

There he worked as a shortage controller for the May Company, eventually rising to become chief executive for shortage control across all stores. His wife, staff director for the firm, got him involved in the business.

He retired from this in 1979. Mr Adams was well loved by his friends as a kind, straight-talking Yorkshireman with a love of cricket. He was extremely generous to his friends, and invited many to visit the family in California.

Mr Adams leaves his daughter and son-in-law Bobbie and Al Shane and grandson Matthew. Another grandson, Ian, died in his teens.

A funeral service was held in the United States on Monday.