Respected Folkestone historian Nick Spurrier has died.

He passed away last Wednesday night from lung cancer, aged 69.

His wife, Angela Conyers, said in an statement: “It is with great regret that I have to tell you that my dear husband, Nick Spurrier, died peacefully in the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.

“The cancer had spread rapidly after being diagnosed less than two weeks earlier.

“I would like to thank you all for your kind messages of support. I was able to read these to Nick and they have meant a great deal to both of us.

“As you can imagine, I am still in a state of shock that this has all happened so quickly. I will contact you again later with details of the funeral arrangements. “

Close friend and former town Mayor Philip Carter said: “It was a very short illness. It has been traumatic and a shock to his friends and family.

“He had a blazing passion for Folkestone. He had originally moved from Canterbury and fell in love with this place.”

Ann Berry, from the First World War commemoration group Step Short, said: “It is very sad. His heart was always in the right place and he was very thorough in what he did.”

Both Mr Carter and Mr Spurrier worked together in Go Folkestone Action Group, the community organisation that campaigned to have a town council for Folkestone, which was formed at decade ago.

Mr Spur edited the Go Folkestone newsletter and set up and maintained teh group’s website and newsletter.

He write articles both for that newsletter and had published in specialised national magazines and journals.

Mr Carter is the founder of Go Folkestone.

Mr Spurrier had also headed the project of planting rosemary along the Road of Remembrance to mark last year’s centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

He was involved in the organisation of the annual Folkestone Book Festival and in a major archaeolgical dig of a Roman villa at East Cliff in 2010 and 2011.

Mr Spurrier had no children of his own.