A former director of airspace planning, David Beech, died of a heart attack while on holiday in Malaga in Spain, aged 67.

Mr Beech was bornin Melbourne, Cambridgeshire to Charles and Alice Beech and grew up in the village with his twin brother Arthur and late brother Jack.

When he was about the age of nine the family moved to Portsmouth where he stayed for the rest of his childhood. He joined the Royal Air Force aged 16 and trained as an air traffic controller. While in Portsmouth he met his future wife Jean, who was four years older than him.

A few years after they married he was moved to RAF Colerne and the couple settled into a house in Corsham.

In 1970 he left the RAF and took a job in Bahrain as an air traffic controller and their daughter Jane, now 38, was born and they moved back to Wiltshire.

Back in Corsham he joined the Civil Aviation Authority and worked for them as an air traffic controller at several airports including West Drayton and Gatwick.

The family lived in Brook Drive and in 1973 had a son called Duncan who sadly died of cot death at just a few months old. In 1976 the couple adopted one-year-old Martin.

In 1984 Mr Beech worked in central London at the Civil Aviation Authority head office and stayed there until he took early retirement in 1996 aged 55 when he was director of air space planning.

When he retired he took up flying and got his private pilot’s license.

Several years after retiring Mr Beech and his wife divorced but both remained in Corsham.

In his spare time Mr Beech enjoyed bird watching and was a member of the RSPB and was a member of the British Butterfly Conservation Society. Mr Beech also spent much of his time at Bath Abbey where he worked as a volunteer.

He had a double heart bypass in 2002 but did not let him stop travelling or volunteering.

The grandfather of three flew out to Malaga in Spain on May 25 as part of an organised trip but was found dead from a heart attack in his hotel room.

A service will be at Bath Abbey on Monday June 22 at 11am followed by a burial at Michael’s Wood burial ground at Cholderton.

Donations can be made in lieu of flowers to the Children’s Society c/o Merretts, Corsham.