Alf (70) founded Murrow-based Alvenor Aquatics and built it into a successful family business while still finding time to serve on the bench in Peterborough, Wisbech and March. But after intermittent illnesses over the last 12 years – including major surgery for bladder cancer – he lost his final battle with leukaemia at Addenbrooke's Hospital on April 9.

He had been diagnosed just two days before.

A funeral service took place on Monday in Parson Drove before a cremation in King's Lynn.

Widow Margaret (71) said she would remember his sense of fun, which prompted him to say things other people would not have got away with.

She said: "A lot of our customers will remember him. He could seem rude to people, but it was only his way and they would laugh about it with him. He definitely wasn't PC, but he lived for his family, which meant everything to him, and he was awfully proud of the kids."

Mrs Grosvenor said she met her let husband in Stourbridge 50 years ago when he worked for a greengrocery firm.

They moved to Whittlesey in about 1965 as Mr Grosvenor pursued his career as an area manager for a radio and television firm.

After moving again and being made redundant, he developed a sideline selling conifers from the couple's new home in Murrow Bank, Murrow, while working as a potato buyer. They had moved again to give them more room for their Great Danes, which competed in dog shows.

The tree-selling business blossomed into a garden centre, but to fill the slow winter months, the couple launched an aquatics operation alongside it.

Mrs Grosvenor said her husband's first pet fish had been won at a fair in Birmingham, and setting up Alvenor Aquatics allowed him to make a living from his interest.

In his spare hours he was keen on military vehicles, and had a small collection including a Ferret armoured car, an armoured Jeep and a Militant lorry with which he sometimes towed a howitzer.

But he also put in time as a magistrate, developing a particular passion for family law.

Mrs Grosvenor said: "When he was first asked to become a magistrate, he said people like him didn't do that sort of thing. But he was persuaded and it became part of his life. He wasn't a man who went to the pub or played golf, so it was his link to the outside world.

"When he had to retire at 70, he was sad and he missed meeting the other magistrates."

Fellow magistrate Jane Melloy knew Mr Grosvenor for 23 years.

She said: "He was a very thoughtful magistrate, very knowledgeable and compassionate, and he always had a great sense of humour."

Mr Grosvenor is also survived by his son, Richard (32) and daughter, Sarah (25).