BOWLS player, Ray Daniels of Bournemouth, has died at the age of 86.

Ray was born in Portsmouth as the oldest of three siblings including a brother, Barry and a sister, Barbara, the children were evacuated when Ray was aged nine.

Despite being told to stay together, Ray and Barry were sent to Salisbury while Barbara went to live on the Isle of Wight.

On his return home, he completed his National Service in the RAF, based with 633 Squadron in Tangmere, West Sussex, from which he learnt skills which he would develop in civilian life as a mechanical engineer.

After he was demobbed, he was employed as an apprentice while taking evening classes and worked his way up to technical director of DT Meredith, which became part of the Charringtons Coal Products group, while living in Kent.

However, at the age of 40, he was made redundant and used the opportunity for a change of career by opening a Spar convenience store in Winchester, which he ran for 10 years.

Outside of his working life, he met his wife, Jeanine, in the 1950s after joining the West Wickham sports club to play football and tennis, who he went on to marry in 1959. Together they later welcomed, their first son, Chris, in 1962, and their second son, Nick, in 1968.

Jeanine's mother was a former captain of England for bowls and her father was an international bowls player. In 1979, she visited the local bowls club in Littleton in Winchester to sign up for the tennis club, which had a long waiting list, and decided to try bowls instead, signing up Ray and their sons in the process.

Ray started his own business as a consultant engineer in Winchester and then additionally Romsey before retiring to Tuckton in Bournemouth in his sixties.

He joined Boscombe Cliff Bowls Club, who were national champions in 2009 and was also a member of Bournemouth Indoor Bowls Centre, which he played in during the cold weather months.

He made it through to some national finals, which included the Father and Son National Indoor Championships in 2006, aged 76.

Ray died on June 24 and his funeral took place at Bournemouth Crematorium on Friday 8th July 2016 with donations going to the Alzheimer's Society.