DIDCOT will fall silent on Tuesday to pay its respects to a man who gave 35 years continuous service to the town’s fire brigade.

Lawrence Didcock, 81, who died of a heart attack on Friday, joined the service in 1948 and was on the scene during some of the county’s most significant incidents.

Mr Didcock, who lived with his wife Margaret in Park Road, attended the Milton rail crash in November 1955, in which 11 people died and 157 were injured, a blaze in August 1964 when a tanker carrying 288,000 gallons of petrol collided with a steam engine, and a Didcot train crash in 1967 in which one woman – a fire officer's wife – died.

He followed his brother, Francis, into the fire service, signing up in 1948 after leaving the RAF at the end of the Second World War.

Mr Didcock’s eldest son Nigel followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a leading firefighter in 1996, and a sub officer in 2001. He continues to serve today.

In September this year, the Didcocks were presented with a special certificate to honour the continuous service members of the family had given to Didcot since Francis Didcock signed up in 1936.

And on Tuesday Mr Didcock’s other son Michael, formerly a fireman but now a funeral director, will lead the cortege from the family home in Park Road, along Broadway, past Didcot fire station, to St Mary’s Church, in Streatley, where he will lay his father to rest.

Firefighters past and present will turn out at the station to form a guard of honour when the hearse and procession pass at about 12.15pm.

Michael Didcock, of Park Road, runs M&J Didcock Funeral Services.

He said: “I’m extremely proud of what my father achieved and stood for – and it will give me enormous pride to lead his funeral procession on Tuesday.”

Oxfordshire’s chief fire officer John Parry said: “Mr Didcock came across to me as a real gentlemen who took obvious delight in life and his experiences in the fire service.

“I was talking to him recently and he produced a great sheaf of photographs and recounted with a mixture of awe, pride and amusement some of the incidents he attended.

“He would be able to recall many of the pumps there and the challenges he faced.

“He was a person who had a real sense of history and his place in it.

“He was very appreciative of his position in the local community.”

Mr Didcock leaves wife Margaret (Peggy) and children Nigel, 49, Jane, 47, and Michael, 45.

His funeral takes place at St Mary’s at 1pm.