Michael’s widow Eleanor let the school know of his sad death. She wrote: ‘He had been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in 2013. He always knew there was no cure and that the best he could hope was to slow down the progress of the disease to acute myeloid leukaemia. He had been getting increasingly ill over the last few months and died peacefully in his sleep at Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Scunthorpe on 29 September 2015. Michael’s greatest joy was his two grandsons and his only regret was that he would not be there to watch them grow up.’