"Boy, you only know the half of it," was one among many favourite phrases of a dedicated councillor and loving grampy who was fondly remembered in Minchinhampton last week.

For half a century Roy Nicholas was a member of Minchinhampton Parish Council and, following his death at the age of 82 on January 1, his funeral was held at the town's Holy Trinity Church on Friday, February 8.

His eulogy was delivered by Stan Waddington, also a parish councillor.

"I knew Roy for a total of 43 years, firstly as my councillor when I came to live in Minchinhampton," said cllr Waddington as he began the eulogy.

"We had a difficulty with which he gave me a lot of help. And our friendship grew over the years from there."

Cllr Waddington then told the church about cllr Nicholas's early years - his love of the piano and talent at mathematics.

He also touched on cllr Nicholas's early teens in which he supported his family after the loss of their father.

"There are many stories of Roy in this period and how he endeavoured to fill this role. One of them related to an attempt to bring some extra money into the house by trying several ventures, one of which was to go into the egg selling business.

"He purchased some hens and built a hen house in his backyard. Egg sales were going up for at least a week and then the hen house apparently caught fire. It was said 5 per cent of the hens were roasted and the other 95 p er cent were drowned by the firemen's hose."

Cllr Nicholas's career as engineer was then touched on, from his beginnings as an apprentice at Gloster Aircraft Company and work on the meteor and javelin aircrafts.

This set that stage for cllr Nicholas's proudest achievements in public office, including steering through the transfer of Minchinhampton's Market House to the community and helping to get a hospice set up at Longfield.

After the eulogy, granddaughters Lowenna Cawrse, 12, and Martha Nicholas, 11, read out a poem they had written entitled ‘My Grampy’,

Taking it in turns to read verses, they read the final lines in unison: "His love of engineering was full of precision.

"His dedication to public life exceeded all ambition.

"His memory of anything Hampton never failed.

"He helped so many - even those who wailed!"