Though Scots-born Mr Marshall has lost a long and gallant fight against cancer, he leaves behind him an exemplary record of voluntary service to his adoptive home of Bexhill. He was a long-serving member of the management committee of St George's Church and a former chairman. He was a member of the editorial team for the church newsletter and was a hard-working local representative on the United Reformed Church's Retired Ministers' Housing Society, looking after property and giving pastoral oversight to retired ministers and their widows. But as church secretary Tom Turner said this week, such a brief resume gives no indication of the extent of George Marshall's active commitment to the church. "He was there to give good advice whenever it was needed and on so many things. He had been a member of the church since March, 1989. "It was typical of George that he would involve himself so deeply in the work of the housing society. "He will be very greatly missed. He was an immensely modest man. Yet he was someone we all looked up to with respect. He was a man of huge integrity." Mr Marshall was a senior engineer with a oil company before his retirement to Bexhill. To his voluntary work for Bexhill Talking Newspaper Association, George Marshall brought the same qualities of quietly understated commitment. He had served as leader of the team which maintains contact with charity's blind readers. Chairman Cllr Brian Kentfield said: "George Marshall was a very quiet but very dedicated man. Nothing was too much trouble for him. He always made sure that everything ran perfectly smoothly. "He was the ideal man to lead our contact with our listeners - always gentle, always kind." In addition to his widow, Essie, he leaves a daughter, Fiona, and a son, Alistair, and grandchildren. Mr Marshall's funeral service was held at St George's Church yesterday morning.