A lifelong bus fan will make his last trip on a double-decker on Thursday when he is driven to his funeral.

Former councillor Gordon Earnshaw will be carried to Keighley crematorium in a red and cream Bristol Lodekka. His family and friends will follow in a London Routemaster.

Both vehicles are from the Keighley Bus Museum Trust, of which Mr Earnshaw was a big supporter.

He died aged 85 in Manorlands hospice at Oxenhope after a four-year battle with cancer.

Mr Earnshaw had had a keen interest in buses ever since working as a fitter for the former Keighley West Yorkshire bus company as a younger man.

Graham Mitchell, who will be driving the Routemaster, said: “Gordon was a very good friend and beneficiary of the museum. He would send us cheques and present us with antique objects like old-fashioned fire extinguishers.

“And he would always be there on Christmas morning when we operated our free Christmas Day service.”

Mr Earnshaw, of Prospect Crescent, Keighley, was a Keighley town councillor until he stepped down in 2007. He had been one of the original councillors when the body was set up in 2002 and sat alongside his daughter, Joyce, and her husband, Gerald Newton.

Mr Newton said: “He was always straightforward and fair-minded and was respected by fellow councillors.”

Mr Earnshaw was transport manager at British Mohair Spinners in Bradford when he retired. He also leaves his wife, Lucy, and son, David.

e-mail: clive.white@telegraphandargus.co.uk