TRIBUTES have been paid to the elderly man who died of a heart attack while driving his mobility buggy.

John Bernard Galloway, 89, of The Chantry, Ridgeway, Chingford, died in Whipps Cross University Hospital after a massive heart attack caused him to crash his buggy into a lamppost on Old Church Road, near Chingford Mount Cemetery.

Son Tony Galloway, who lives in Southgate, described his father as a popular man who was dearly loved by his large family and friends.

He said: "He was a brilliant father. Everyone I have spoken to has said what a good man he was.

"He was well known in the Chingford area because he attended mass everyday and had friends there as well as in his sheltered accommodation."

Mr Galloway, pictured, married Ada May Jukes in Tottenham in 1940.

They spent 58 years together and had eight children before he was widowed in 1998. Before he moved to Chingford in the mid 1980s Mr Galloway was a builder and decorator running his own firm of eight workers.

Pat Jackson, manager of the Chantry, where Mr Galloway spent his final years, said he would be missed very much by the community there. She said: "He really was a good man and everyone liked him.

"He always had a smile and appreciated everything he had done for him.

"When he came back from church, where he went each day weather permitting, he would take time to talk to everyone and he never had a bad word to say.

"He was a very helpful man and would help people wherever he could.

"He was a real part of this community and we are sad that he has gone."

Mr Galloway had 24 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.