A DEVOTED husband who was once voted Yorkshire’s most romantic man after he nursed his wife out of a coma has died, aged 74.

John Dunnill, of Thirsk Road, Easingwold, retired from his job as a civil servant working for the Home Office to help nurse his wife back to health in 1990.

In 1989, John’s wife Anne, was rushed to hospital with an ulcerated colon and spent two-and-a-half months in a coma fighting for her life, but John kept a constant vigil by her bedside at York Hospital and never gave up hope.

He was nominated for a competition to find Milka’s Most Romantic Yorkshire man, and he beat hundreds of others to the title after judges heard of the couple’s heart-warming tale.

John and Anne, who were married for 54 years, and went on to enjoy their retirement together going on many holidays in Scotland with their two dogs.

In 1991, John was awarded the Imperial Service Medal by the Queen for his work at the Home Office and he and Anne attended a local ceremony in Easingwold to collect his medal. John loved sports and in his youth, he played football, cricket and tennis and in later life he enjoyed playing dominoes.

As a couple they shared a love of brass band music as John’s granddad was a brass band conductor and they used to go to his concerts.

John battled cancer for the last eight months of his life during which time Anne, who worked as a community health administrator for many years, became John’s nurse and looked after him at home, with John only going into St Monica’s Hospital, at Easingwold, for the final week of his life.

Anne said: “John was just such a really lovely chap in my eyes. He loved his sport and his brass band music and his dogs and he also loved racing his racing pigeons.

“He has about 40 birds in a number of lofts and I have now taken them on to look after them.”

John’s funeral is on Monday, at 2pm, at Easingwold Parish Church. Donations can be made to St Monica’s Hospital.