A SOUTH Lakeland church was packed for the funeral of a well-known retired watchmaker, who has died aged 93.

Paul Brooks, of Milnthorpe, was extremely active for his age and had a wealth of interests.

His busy life led him to forge many friendships and that was reflected in Storth Parish Church being full for his funeral.

Adopted aged four from an orphanage in Lambeth, London, Mr Brooks grew up in Manchester before the family moved to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

He worked in a drawing office in the early ‘40s where he drew up blueprints for machine prototypes. In 1942 he joined the RAF as ground crew and served until 1945, finishing his service as an aircraftman first class.

He spent time in East Anglia and abroad in Algeria, Malta, Belgium and Italy. He was awarded the Italy Star for participation in the Italian campaign.

During his RAF square-bashing days in Blackpool he met Hylda, and they were married in 1944. Their daughter, Heather, was born in 1949.

After completing his service, Mr Brooks returned to the drawing office. He trained in watch and clock-making and repairing jewellery before opening his own shop in Burnley.

Hylda died aged 37 and Mr Brooks met Mabel and they married in 1959. The couple moved to Silverdale in 1967 and then to Carr Bank, near Arnside, in the late ‘70s.

Mr Brooks was an independent watch and clock repairer by this time, working from home, with a workroom either built into a spare room or a shed.

While at Silverdale the couple also provided bed and breakfast accommodation, hosting visitors from all over the UK and as far afield as France, Norway, Canada and Japan. Their daughter, Heather, married David in 1969, and they had a daughter, Catherine, born in 1972.

Mrs Brooks’s occasional forgetfulness deteriorated into Alzheimer’s disease in the early ‘90s. Mr Brooks looked after her at home as long as he was able, until his own health was affected and she moved into specialist care.

Mr Brooks moved to Milnthorpe in 2000, fitting his workroom into the side of the garage.

He continued to provide watch and clock repairs for a local jeweller and friends and family in the area, and also maintained larger fixed clocks in private residences.

Mr Brooks loved Age UK lunch clubs and outings. He was also a member of Beetham Probus Club, which included a stint as chairman in 2004/2005.

Cars were another passion and he enjoyed a track day in a Ferrari in his 80s. He put his enjoyment of driving to good use by being a voluntary driver for the local patient transport services for several years.

Mr Brooks was also a regular participant in a weekly exercise class and had recently started a leisure class at Kendal Leisure Centre where he had been trying out table tennis and curling. He was an enthusiastic member of Storth Indoor Bowling Club, playing regularly on Friday evenings.

In a eulogy read at the funeral, his grand-daughter Catherine Turnough said: “He was one of a kind, someone who met you with a smile on his face and who always wanted to leave you with a smile on yours.”