George Larkin, known to many as Brother George, of the Order of St John of God, died yesterday. Mike Amos looks back on his life.

THE monk the North-East knew as Brother George died peacefully yesterday. Diminutive in sackcloth and glasses, he was 92.

The news may come as a surprise.

"Everyone thinks the old beggar dropped off years ago," he would periodically, puckishly, observe.

The belief was so widely held that a Darlington and Stockton Times leader in June 2001 described him as "the late Brother George". They resurrected him the following week.

George Larkin was born in Burnley, became a member of the Order of St John of God in 1932 and took his first vows two years later. He never broke them.

A qualified mental and surgical nurse, he spent many years on the wards of St John of God Hospital, in Scorton, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, before some monastic genius decreed in 1969 that he should become the order's principal fundraiser.

George was indefatigable, becoming so affectionately familiar in pubs throughout the region that fibreglass collecting boxes were made in his fitting image. Many mendicantly remain.

A fishing boat and a racehorse, one of Sam Hall's at Middleham, were also named after him.

"For many people, the face of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God was the face of Brother George," said a spokesperson for the order.

"His interest in fundraising lasted, quite literally, until the day he died."

Closer to God than the Highway Code had probably ever envisaged, the black-clad Brother drove around in a Morris Minor known as the Purple Peril, though it was he who came off worst after a crash at Aldbrough St John - of all places - in 1981. George suffered a broken kneecap and, insult to injury, a £100 fine from Richmond magistrates who - unwilling to risk further the killing of Brother George - banned him from driving until he took his test again.

Probably deciding that he had sufficiently tried the patience of St Christopher, the merry monk never bothered.

In 1993, he had a leg amputated as a direct result of the accident 12 years earlier, but continued indomitably in his wheelchair to do daily ward rounds at St John of God.

Often, patients would remember they had last seen him in a pub.

"You shouldn't go to such places," George would mischievously reply.

A twinkling tea party marked his 90th birthday, though most of the presents appeared bottle-shaped. "They've put up with me and I've put up with them," he insisted.

"When you join the order, you have to put up with anything."

The Very Reverend John Martin, the order's Provincial, said that Brother George had been an inspiration.

"He rarely complained and was never anything other than optimistic.

"He was dearly loved by us all and will be greatly missed."

George had never feared death.

"When God wants me," he said, "I'll go."

His funeral is expected to be on Saturday.