Tributes paid to former Wakefield vet Brian Lawrence

His first surgery was in Market Street and he also saw animals out of hours in a hut behind the family home in Batley Road. The practice then relocated to purpose-built premises in Gills Yard in the centre of Wakefield. In 1968 he went into partnership with Keith Davies and the practice employed two other vets and several veterinary nurses and admin staff.

His daughter Penny Peters said: "The Gills Yard surgery was recently demolished as part of the regeneration of the Civic Quarter of Wakefield.

"However, while my father worked there this was one of the main veterinary practices in Wakefield (with branch surgeries in Castleford, Royston and Morley), so he was a well known figure in the city."

Mr Lawrence was also a prison visitor at HMP Wakefield for more than 50 years and became chairman of the National Association of Prison Visitors, for which he received an MBE.

Mrs Peters said: "He felt strongly that prison visiting helped bring part of the wider community into prisons and so had an important role to play."

Mr Lawrence played a large part in raising funds when Wakefield Hospice was first built and for many years was one of the chief organisers of the yearly Wakefield Hospice sponsored walk. He was also a longstanding member of the Rotary Club of Wakefield.

Brian Thomas Lawrence was born on March 8, 1933. He grew up in London and although he had two periods of evacuation, his home area was bombed during the blitz.

An animal lover from early childhood, he wrote every year from the age of ten to the Royal Veterinary College in London and he often said he thought this was the reason that he gained a place there after leaving school.

He graduated in 1956 and worked as a vet in Romford and Hull before moving to Wakefield, where his wife, Heather, had grown up.

Heather Lawrence, died in 1984. She was the daughter of a Wakefield auctioneer John Kilburn and had a keen interest in antiques and local history.

She was a founder member and later chairman of West Yorkshire Antique Collectors’ Society and president of Wakefield Historical Society between 1980 and 1983. She was also the author of two books: Yorkshire Pots and Potteries in 1974 and the co-author of another about Christopher Saxton, an Elizabethan map maker, in 1979.

The couple had three children Penny, Simon and Toby.

Mr Lawrence retired in 1990. He had a passion for the great outdoors and following retirement he was able to do more walking. He became a local footpath inspector for the Peak and Northern Footpaths Society.