TRIBUTES have been paid to a former chemist who shaped the economic and social development of a market town and its rural hinterland for decades.

Great grandfather Harry Woodhead died of pneumonia, aged 96, just days after attending his son Ian's Boxing Day shoot at Felixkirk, near Thirsk.

Mr Woodhead had until recent months continued to work in the ring at Thirsk Auction Mart, of which he had been chairman for nearly 30 years.

The eldest of eight children, Mr Woodhead served as a captain with the West Yorkshire Regiment in Burma during the Second World War, fighting the Japanese.

After moving to Thirsk in 1947, Mr Woodhead launched a chemist shop, where he made his own medicines, and later garage and aerial crop-spraying businesses, which included the development of an airfield at Felixkirk.

After witnessing three children drown, he helped build the Thirsk swimming pool - at a cost of £40,000 - to teach other youngsters to swim.

Completed in 1952, it was the first in the UK to be built by public subscription.

He was also founding chairman of the Thirsk and Sowerby Flatts Preservation Trust and helped set up Abbeyfield homes in the town for elderly residents, both of which he used his powers of persuasion to create.

In 2006, he oversaw the move and transformation of Thirsk Auction Mart in Station Road to a £5.5m base at Thirsk Rural Business Centre, which was hailed a beacon of hope for farmers struck by foot-and-mouth disease.

His daughter, Janet Ellis, said her father had displayed a remarkable resilience after being hit a few years after her birth when his wife, Molly, died of cancer and in 1989, when his wife, Elizabeth, died of multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Mrs Ellis said: "When asked what his hobby was, father replied I organise people.

"He was lucky because he came from a family whose work was the same as their passion."

In 2012, Mr Woodhead was presented with an MBE by the Queen for services to the rural economy and last year was honoured by Rotary for more than 60 years' service.

Hambleton District Council leader Councillor Mark Robson said: "If it had not been for Harry we might not have an auction mart in Thirsk.

"He was a remarkable man, a lot of people can only dream about achieving what he did."

A private, family funeral for Mr Woodhead will be followed by a memorial service, the date of which is yet to be announced.