A former RAF serviceman has died aged 85.

Douglas Dicconson was born in Walthamstow in 1928 and served in central Africa between 1945 and 1949.

He later joined Morgan Crucible Ltd, which manufactured carbon and ceramic products for industrial use and is now known as Morgan Advanced Materials, and managed operations in Mexico, Brazil and the USA in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

While serving as the president of Morganite Inc. in North Carolina, he married his wife Elizabeth Wright Dicconson, who survives him.

They lived in North Carolina for 25 years, raising their four children, John Sherwood Dicconson, Elizabeth Dicconson Cohen, Edith Anne Dicconson and Douglas Harry Edgar Dicconson Jr.

In 1993 Douglas and Elizabeth retired to the Carson Valley in Nevada to spend time with their children and grandchildren, Katharine Elizabeth Dicconson, Benjamin Davenport Cohen, Ava Elizabeth Cohen, Parker Douglas Dicconson and Jackson Philip Dicconson.