A FORMER Nigerian police commissioner, who was awarded the OBE for services overseas, was remembered at a funeral service at Darlington Crematorium yesterday.

Kenneth Fletcher, 79, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, died on Good Friday.

He was born in Whitby in 1923, and attended the local grammar school before joining the Army a year after the Second World War broke out, helping to train officers in Britain.

Two years as an inspector with the Milk Marketing Board followed demobilisation, as well as four years' colonial service in Ghana and a brief stay in Canada.

But Mr Fletcher was to find his calling in West Africa, serving with the British colonial police in Nigeria and then, after independence, with the fledgling state's own police force.

Rising through the ranks between 1954 and 1970, he won the Nigerian Police Medal for his service to the force and the OBE for services overseas in the New Year's Honours list of 1969.

Two years in Jamaica preceded the family's return to the UK in 1973 where Mr Fletcher joined the Ministry of Defence, serving in both the UK and Germany until his retirement in 1988.

After settling in Richmond, Mr Fletcher became a leading member of the Swaledale Outdoor Club and the local Caledonian Society and the Friends of Richmond.

He leaves a widow, Gwen, daughter, Deborah and son, Nigel.