The oldest member of the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) has died at the age of 98.

Dennis Keighley, from Bolton was the oldest member of the Bolton branch of NARPO passed away on October 29 at the age of 98.

He joined Bolton Borough Police in 1947, taking the collar number 22 and served many years as the custody sergeant at Bolton Central.

Dennis started his beat down in 'Little Bolton' in 1947 and then progressed to the town centre beat.

He had four citations from the chief constable and a couple of write ups in the Bolton Evening News about his work..

He once managed to apprehend three men on his own and he was chosen to go down to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday at some point in the early 60s as a representative of Bolton borough as it was at the time.

His daughter Sue Key said: “He was promoted to sergeant and in the last few years of his career he was actually in the central police office on the charge desk as they tend to put very experienced and steady hands on there to calm people down on those desks.

“He was the oldest member of the Bolton branch of NARPO as he was 98 when he died and there was no one older than him, and we think probably that because he only had two years in Lancashire, that he’s probably the oldest surviving member of the Bolton borough police force.

“We’re not 100 per cent sure on this but it’s very possible because of his age and because it went to Lancashire in 1970 which is 52 years ago, quite a lot of them have died and not many are still around certainly with his length of service.”

Dennis retired in 1972 after spending 23 years with Bolton borough police force and two in Lancashire constabulary.

After he retired from the police at the age of 48 in 1972, he went into local government and worked for the housing department until his retirement at 65 in 1990.

Dennis was married to his wife Irene from 1950 until her death in 2015 and they lived in Westhoughton since 1986.

He met Irene at the police office when she was a trainee telephonist.

Sue said: “She was a trainee telephonist at the police office and by chance two telephonists wanted to have a conversation and told my mum to go upstairs and there was a dance on in the canteen and dad was there.

“She knew another officer and he introduced her to dad, and they got engaged six months later. She was the love of his life.”

In the last three years of Dennis’s life, he lived in The Clough Residential Home in Bolton.

Before Irene passed away in 2015, she was in care for 10 years with Parkinson’s after Dennis could no longer look after her by himself.

Sue said: “He still had his brain, and his memory was phenomenal.

“He had a mild heart attack with the strain of looking after Irene and the hospital told him he couldn’t do it anymore so mum had to go into car unfortunately and he visited her six days out of seven for 10 years.

“She really was the love of his life.

“He was a very caring, loyal man with lots of fortitude, he had a lot of hardship in his early years, his dad died when he was only 10 months old, and he left Thornleigh at 14 so he could contribute to help granny.

“So, all his life was spent looking after other people and service for other people.

“In the last three years he really couldn’t look after himself very well even with care.”

After Dennis retired from the force, he went to night school and did O-levels and an A- level in French. He also did German conversation classes for around 20 years too.

His daughter said how he was a vivacious reader and a very clever and bright man.

Dennis’s life was dedicated to serving other people and he had a very strong catholic faith and had been in the St Vincent de Paul society where they went to visit sick and old people at their homes.

He leaves behind his three children and four grandchildren.

His funeral took place on Friday, 18 November at the Sacred Heart Church in Westhoughton.