A RETIRED lorry driver from Hampshire died from asbestosis just weeks after becoming a great-grandfather for the first time.

Peter Weir, from Swaythling, died in June this year, after being admitted to Southampton General Hospital.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard that the 79-year-old, who moved from Northern Ireland in 1955, had become housebound having suffered from various illnesses.

A post-mortem examination revealed the main cause of death was pneumonia, caused by asbestosis, as a result of exposure to asbestos when he worked as a pipe lagger, at Fawley Refinery, for just a year during the 1950s.

Coroner Keith Wiseman recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease.