HUNDREDS of friends, family and well-wishers gathered for a thanksgiving service in memory of Gravesend District Lions Club founder Leslie Rolf JP who has died aged 79.

Mr Rolf, a Longfield resident, had been ill for several years before his death last month, at Gravesend’s Lions Hospice, the hospice of which he was chaired. He leaves behind a widow, Pat, and two sons, Brian and Stephen.

Graham Alderman, Lions Club secretary and friend of Mr Rolf for 14 years, said: “He was a very caring sort of person, very friendly. You would safely say he would do anything for anybody. The whole basis of the Lions Club is to help those worse off than yourself and he took that to heart.”

Together with several local businessmen, Mr Rolf founded the club in 1961 and was elected president four times.

He also found time to run his own factory unit-letting business from Springhead Business Park and spent 32 years as a justice of the peace at Medway magistrates.

Bill Stevens, chairman of Lions Hospice, spoke at the thanksgiving service at St John’s Church in Meopham on Monday after a cremation service for close friends and family at Medway Crematorium.

He spoke of Mr Rolf’s work as chairman of Lions Hospice fund-raising committee which raised the £1.5million needed to build it in 1992.

“It was a mammoth task, but it was in his capable hands. Thanks to Les, we have a lasting monument to him in the Lions Hospice.”

He added: “Most of us would be pleased to achieve just half of what he did.”