On Friday 4 August he had been watching Gloucestershire play Northants in a one-day cricket match in Cheltenham and died the following morning.

Founded in 1909 by Peter’s grandfather Fred in Wimborne, what became known as Douch Family Funeral Directors was initially a furniture and furnishing business.

It is now dedicated to funerals with seven branches across Dorset employing more than 50 staff.

After leaving school Peter trained as an accountant in Poole and secured his first post-qualification job in St Lucia.

It was there he met his wife Josephine, a nurse, and when they married in 1976 he became manager in Dominica of accountants Coopers & Lybrand.

In 1988 they moved to England with their four sons, Dweyn, Nick, Quentin and Andrew, settling in the Wakefield area of Yorkshire where the children were schooled, and Peter worked for a management consultant in Bradford.

In 1994, Peter’s father Jack was running the family business and he moved down to join the company as finance director.

Later he became managing director and in 2011 when his son Nick took on that role, he became chairman.

After his retirement, Peter said: “My father ensured I worked in all aspects of the funeral business so I would know it inside out – from arranging and conducting funerals to coffin bearing.

“It is a grounding that was important and one that I impressed on my children.

“With my family heavily involved in local sport – especially cricket – for years, we have sponsored many teams and leagues and for more than a decade sponsored the Dorset Cricket League through our Dorset Funeral Plan.”

Peter’s son Nick said: “Tributes have been flooding in.

“His passion was sport and he had visited almost all Britain’s professional football grounds, and he particularly loved cricket.

“He was always keen to help people and was genuinely interested in everybody he met, and he was a keen and long-standing Rotarian.”

Peter is survived by his wife Josephine, sister Judy, four sons, three granddaughters and an upcoming fourth granddaughter.