TRIBUTES have been paid to one of the most influential figures in the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, following his death at the age of 93.

The Very Rev Brother Bernard Burke died peacefully in Darlington after a remarkable life leading the Order through momentous changes.

He became the first provincial of the Order in England in 1953 and held the position for nine years.

During that time the Order bought Rockcliffe Park house at Hurworth, first to serve as a tuberculosis sanatorium, then an orthopaedic hospital and finally as a service for disabled adults.

Hurworth Grange, now a community centre, was also purchased as an apostolic school for prospective Brothers. In 1969, when Brother Bernard was 58, he transferred to Zambia, to spearhead a project to create a new 60-bed hospital in Lusaka.

When he was 70, Brother Bernard returned to Britain, living for many years at St John of God Hospital in Scorton. In in May he moved into the Ventress Hall nursing home in Darlington.

Paying tribute, the Very Rev John Martine said: "He was the Order's great innovator, a man of prayer, a towering presence in the life of the Brothers.

"He was dearly loved by us all and will be greatly missed, he was truly the father of our Province and we will not see his like again."