Tribute has been paid to former wool industry and international trade expert Peter Richardson who has died aged 86.

Mr Richardson, of Baildon, served in several senior administrative roles with Bradford-based wool textile bodies for more than 20 years and became an authority on international trade rules, including the Multi Fibre Arrangement and the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade.

He also helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for restoration work at Saltaire United Reformed Church where his funeral will be held on Friday at 10.30am.

Between 1968 and 1980 he was secretary and then director of the Wool Textile Delegation before becoming secretary-general of the newly formed Confederation of British Wool Textiles, the central organisation for the industry.

During his career he travelled 120,000 miles attending International Wool Textile Organisation conferences around the world. Mr Richardson retired in 1991 after 23 years with wool trade organisations, having been awarded an MBE in 1988 for services to the industry.

Peter Ackroyd, IWTO president, said: “Peter was one of the last of the old-fashioned trade association officials who worked tirelessly on behalf of his members both in the UK and internationally.”

A Bachelor of Law from London University and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries, Mr Richardson was appointed a Bradford magistrate in 1971.

He attended Carlton Grammar School and started in the wool trade aged 16, including working for Robert Cook and Co Ltd. He also served in the RAF and for ten years was secretary of the Manchester Corn Exchange before returning to Bradford to join the wool trade.

A former secretary of Bradford Civic Society and treasurer of its Baildon counterpart, Mr Richardson was founder chairman of Baildon Residents' Association.

He started the restoration fund at Saltaire United Reformed Church, whose mausoleum contains the remains of textile magnate Sir Titus Salt, and which he attended for more than 40 years.

He leaves a widow, Nancy, to whom he was married for 62 years, along with a son, daughter and two grandchildren.