A PACKED York Minster has heard tributes to a ‘”inspirational” Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire by business leaders, senior church figures and the Imam of York Mosque.

Representatives of senior Royal figures were among a congregation of more than 1,000 who attended a service of thanksgiving yesterday for Barry Dodd CBE.

Mr Dodd died when the helicopter he was piloting crashed in North Yorkshire in May.

In the cathedral’s order of service, his widow Frances thanked people for coming to celebrate his life and told how the many cards, letters and flowers she had received offering people’s condolences had been overwhelming.

She told how her husband and talented colleagues had worked hard over the years to transform his business GSM from humble beginnings into a global enterprise.

She said he felt he had been blessed and wanted to put something back into society, and the opportunity had come when he was appointed the Queen’s representative for North Yorkshire - ”a great honour he was proud to accept”.

She said: “Barry was a truly inspirational person who cared about everyone he met, and your presence here today is a testament to that.”

Entrepreneur and Deputy Lord Lieutenant David Kerfoot said that in his work for the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership, Mr Dodd had been a “powerful force for advocating all that is great and good in our region” and said his work for charities had been “inspirational”.

The Bishop of Ripon, the Very Reverend John Dobson, said the fact Barry had gone was a “disaster,” his death a tragedy and his choice as the Queen’s representative in North Yorkshire had been ‘inspired.

York Mosque Imam Abid Salik told how Mr Dodd had visited the mosque on many occasions and his death and come as a great shock to the Muslim community.

“Barry would visit us, on formal and informal occasions, and he would sometimes sit down on the carpet over a cup of tea and biscuits and talk about his career and the contribution of the mosque and its congregation, and about friendship and tolerance,” he said.

“We knew from the first time we met him that Barry was a rare person, a man of sincerity and with an inner warmth.”