Hundreds attended a funeral service today for former Hove mayor Leslie Hamilton who died last month aged 82.
They included Brighton and Hove mayor Andy Durr, the city's three MPs and dozens of councillors.
But the congregation at All Saints Church in Hove also included many ordinary folk he had helped as a councillor over many years.
Mr Hamilton, who leaves a widow, Olive, and three children, was chairman of the former Portslade Council and East Sussex County Council. He was twice mayor of Hove and was made a freeman of the borough in 1994.
His son, Brighton and Hove councillor Leslie Hamilton, said: "He was an ordinary men who left school at 14 for economic reasons but he made an extraordinary mark on public life."
The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Eric Kemp, conducted the service.
A wreath from the Dunkirk Veterans' Association was later taken from the church to the war memorial at Portslade.
Leslie Hamilton had requested that Jerusalem should be played at his funeral service and that there should be no tears. The first request was granted but not everyone remained dry-eyed.
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