Tributes to caring Alf

Mr Cresswell, aged 85, died on Friday – three weeks after a head-on crash in the village.

He served as an RAF Combined Forces Commando during the Second World War and spent much of the conflict living in a truck behind enemy lines. His job was to assist the Dutch resistance with reconnaissance duties and he spent time in Holland, Belgium and France.

Mr Cresswell's only son Robert said his father, who lived in Kingswinford with wife Muriel, was a true "pillar of the community". "He was liked and loved by everyone that knew him," he said.

"My father would collect five or six of his neighbours' keys and make sure their houses and gardens were OK when they went on holiday. He was that sort of a man.

"It is tragic the way he has died and we will miss him terribly."

Mr Cresswell's granddaughter Rachel added: "No-one would have believed he was 85 if they had seen him. He loved to dance and play around and absolutely doted on his great-grandchildren.

"They called him The Biscuit Man because he seemed to have a never-ending supply of biscuits for them when they went round. He was a wonderful man."

The accident happened in July, just a day before keen Albion fan Mr Cresswell was set to move into a new rented home while his flood-ridden bungalow was being sorted out.

He was in critical care for three weeks at Russells Hall Hospital, in the same ward as wife Muriel who was also ill, before he died on Friday. After the war Mr Cresswell initially worked at a butcher's in Tipton before going on to take a job grading cattle for the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Also a keen gardener, he won several prizes when the family lived in Oakham, Dudley, before moving to Kingswinford.

Councillor Lynn Boleyn said: "While I only met Alf on a few occasions during the recent flooding of his home I found him to be very kind and caring." Mr Cresswell had two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.