A MINUTE'S silence was held at the start of a British Open Fell Running Association race at Sedbergh on May 7 in memory of 'true gentleman' Ken Shuttleworth.

Mr Shuttleworth, a life president and one of the founding members of the Helm Hill Running Club, died peacefully at his Kendal home last Friday, aged 72.

Alastair Dunn, a club member and Mr Shuttleworth's son-in-law, said: "I'm very grateful to Ken for everything that he did regards to the club.

"He introduced me to fell running, which I have been involved with ever since, and I met his daughter Jennifer through the club.

Mr Shuttleworth, of Stonecross Road, Kendal, was born at Melling in Lancashire on March 29 1945, to his parents John and Emma.

He had one brother and two sisters; Alan, Joan and the late Mavis.

After his family moved to Haggle Foot Farm at Cowan Head, near Kendal, he attended school in Burneside.

Mr Shuttleworth married Carol Wharton on May 16, 1970, and the couple had two daughters, Katie and Jennifer. Sadly, his first wife died of cancer in 2014 and he married Susan Park in 2016.

In 1990, he founded the Helm Hill Running Club, which now has 250 members, along with Billy Procter, Billy Reed and a small group of parents.

Mr Procter said: "Ken was a gentleman, and one of those class acts, who did everything and never made a song and dance about it.

"He ran the Kendal Winter League races for years, and never asked anyone to help him. The really good thing about him was that he got on and did things and he never wanted to be in the limelight for doing them.

"He would go out and mark out the course, do the timekeeping and then go out and collect the flags."

Mr Shuttleworth was an experienced Lake District fell runner, and introducing young people to the sport was particularly important to him.

Tom Addison, a leading Helm Hill runner and former English champion, said: “Ken was my first-ever coach and he really kept my enthusiasm going as a youngster and got me hooked on the sport.

“He made training fun and got us coming back week after week. He had a really good group of youngsters under his belt who wanted to do well and he really fired our enthusiasm with some of the fun training sessions he made up.”

Outside fell-running circles, Mr Shuttleworth worked as a milk tanker driver, and a delivery driver for Builders Supply.

He had four grandchildren; Cameron, Fraser, Jedd and Kaitlin.

His funeral service was held at Kendal Parish Church yesterday, followed by a memorial service at Kendal Cricket Club.