QUAKER and former university lecturer Leslie Laycock has died, just a fortnight after he and his wife Jean celebrated their diamond Wedding.

Dr Laycock, 85, of Wheatley Lane, Ben Rhydding, had suffered a long illness. His funeral, which takes place at 11am tomorrow at Skipton Crematorium, is expected to be attended by many fellow Ilkley Quakers as well as family and friends from all over England. A memorial service is also planned later at the Quaker's Ilkley Meeting House.

Mrs Laycock this week paid tribute to her husband's courage as he suffered from various illnesses in recent years, and also to the care shown to him by medical staff and carers in the last few months of his life.

"I and my family are very appreciative of the care shown to him by his GPs, consultants, his home sitters and the staff at Moor Court Day Care Centre, and at Troutbeck Nursing Home, where we recently celebrated our Diamond Wedding, and also, in the last few days of his life, at the Dales Nursing Home at Draughton," she said.

"His death was, thankfully, a peaceful and painless one, and it released him from the constriction and frustration of dementia and cancer. The last few years have been difficult ones healthwise, but ones he faced with courage and determination.

"During the last three months in nursing homes, a loving spirit still shone through and his carers grew very fond of him."

She said her husband, born in Skipton in 1917, had been brought up in Prestwich near Manchester, where they had met through the local Youth Hostelling group in 1939.

When the 1939-45 war broke out, he had registered as a conscientious objector, gaining unconditional exemption, and then undertook various tasks including working with the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship in their work in the London Blitz and forestry work for International Voluntary Service for Peace, before joining a Christian subsistence farming community in Suffolk.

The couple married in 1942 and worked there together until leaving to undertake a short spell working at a 'progressive' school in Cornwall run by the writer and educationist Dora Russell.

Mr and Mrs Laycock later became joint wardens of youth hostels in the Lake District, while Mr Laycock studied for a London External BA degree in his spare time in 1946. At this time, he became a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

In 1948 he studied for a Social Science Diploma at Hull University while his wife ran a children's home, and then, after a year at the London School of Economics studying for the Mental Health Certificate, he became a psychiatric social worker and worked as such in the Child Guidance Clinic in Preston.

In 1954 he became an assistant lecturer at Edinburgh University, where he obtained a PhD. He then lectured at Birmingham before moving with his family to Ilkley in 1963 to take up a post at Leeds University. He eventually became Head of the Social Work Division in the Adult Education Department before his retirement in 1982.

"When he retired, he was able to devote much of his time to various Quaker activities, and was also an active member of the Ilkley branch of Amnesty International, working as treasurer for many years," said Mrs Laycock.

"He worked for the Talking Newspaper for some years until, in 1993, a serious operation damaged his voice. He later became a keen member, as the Quaker representative, of the Churches Together in Ilkley.

"This meant a good deal to him and the work they did in raising resources for a home for people with learning difficulties was a source of great satisfaction to him."

Jean and Leslie Laycock had five children. Tragically, their first son, David, died in 1952, aged eight, but the couple have two remaining sons, Anthony and Michael, and two daughters, Carol and Jenny, as well as seven grand-children, Rachel, Catherine, Richard, David, Christopher, Matthew and Gabrielle.