A SPECIAL Land Rover tribute was paid at the funeral of a Dwygyfylchi man.

David Mankelow, aged 73, had been a salesman for the Land Rover distributor Rybrook at Llandudno Junction since 1990.

The cortege at his funeral was largely made up of many types of Land Rovers, including Range Rovers, Discoveries and the more traditional four by four vehicles, driven by work mates, friends, relatives and former customers marking how popular he was as a friend and a salesman.

David, who had two daughters and a son, owned and drove a Land Rover estate car.

His daughter Lei said: “I was deeply moved when I saw the cortege of Land Rovers driven by his work mates and former customers. It said so much about him and his life, and how well he was appreciated and how he will be missed.

“My sister and I arranged for his coffin to be coloured Land Rover green and it bore an adaption of the Land Rover slogan: “One Life, Live It” changed to “One Life, Lived It.”

Lei added: "One of my dad's passions was sheep dogs and he persuaded Rybrook to make a financial contribution every year to the sheep dog trials.

“Everyone loved my dad, he was a kind, generous gentleman.”

She added that if anyone wanted to make a contribution to in his memory, his preferred charity was The British Lung Foundation with a contribution page at https://david-mankelow.muchloved.com/

Phil Deville who worked with David said: “Everybody absolutely loved him, he was a gentle, nice man. His customers kept coming back and back over the years. It almost goes without saying he will be very much missed by us all.

"The turn out at his funeral from staff and friends and even his customers was unbelievable, and was a tribute to his popularity.”

David and his long term partner Julie Lovell-Smith planned to but he died a week before the wedding. Julie, his partner for 30 years a week said they planned to marry on Monday October 7, but he died the previous Monday. She said: “We had bought the rings but had kept the impending marriage secret because we are private people and didn’t want to make a fuss.”