SUPPORTER of the Ringwood Carnival, Brian Peck, died at Bournemouth Hospital at the age of 90, on August 29.

Born in Sheffield, after finishing school Mr Peck started training to become a dentist before joining the Navy during the Second World War and worked as a radar operator on HMS Sheffield before leaving due to ill health.

Mr Peck was one of the first people to try penicillin as a medicine to cure septicemia and having recovered from the condition, he made the move from Sheffield to Ringwood.

Initially he worked as a pig and turkey farmer and it was on one of his weekly visits to Ringwood town centre, that he met his future wife, Joan. The couple courted for nine years before saying their vows at Ringwood Parish Church, in front of their friends from the local community.

Together the happy couple had two sons, Andrew and Roderick, and later welcomed their grandchildren, Elliot, Oliver, Jessica and Matt.

He was well-known in Ringwood for running one of the town's longest-running businesses, W. A. Grimes, an family-run upholstery and furniture store, which Mr Peck ran for 25 years before it closed after 162 years of trade in 1985. His wife, Joan, was the company secretary for W. A. Ghrimes for over 25 years.

Outside of work, Mr and Mrs Peck enjoyed drinking coffee in The Old Brown House in Ringwood, where they enjoyed the view from the window seat, before Joan died in 2011.

His sons have said that their dad was an incredible entertainer among friends and a hard worker, who always had a story to tell. They also said that he was a respectable man, who always had a smile on his face, and was the best dad in the world.

He was a founding chairman of the charity, Round Table and the 41 Club, and started the Ringwood Water Carnival, which ran for three years and featured a host of boats, rafts and canoes on the River Avon.

Mr Peck supported the Ringwood Carnival for a number of years thereafter, he was a Rotarian for over 20 years and is a former President of the Ringwood Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

He and his wife were also supporters of the Ringwood Musical and Dramatical Society and he would always reserve the top table of the society's annual show, The Soiree, for friends to enjoy on the last night.

Mr Peck will be remembered at a funeral service held today at Ringwood Parish Church, led by his good friend, Peter Crutcher.