'I couldn’t have chosen a better person in my life' - Wife pays tribute to former Crawley Mayor and councillor Peter Milton

And wife Linda, who he was married to for 56 years, said he will be greatly missed and paid tribute to a ‘very funny man’.

Peter was well known in Crawley He was a councillor in Broadfield from 1979 for 14 years and was Mayor of the town in 1984 and 1985.

He also had a flower stall in Broadfield and had worked as market trader in the Lanes in Brighton. Peter and Linda have three daughters - Sarah, Natalie and Lisa - seven grandchildren and one great grandson.

The couple met in Crawley in 1963 when Peter was visiting the town to find an ex-girlfriend. Linda said: “But he found me instead. I always told him how lucky he was.

“We were a good team. We had a similar sense of humour and that dry sense of humour runs through the family. I couldn’t have chosen a better person in my life.”

Linda told us how much being Mayor of Crawley meant to him and how much he put into being a councillor. She said: “He loved being Mayor. He didn’t mind attention. He was a people person. He was a very funny man and had a great sense of humour.

“Being a councillor does take a huge part of your life.

“The amount of phone calls we used to get and people knocking on your door at 2am.

“The phone calls were constant. I became the telephonist because he was always out. Someone had to answer and listen to what they were saying.

“We both enjoyed it. When he did retire that was the right time.”

Linda said Peter always enjoyed his politics and always took a stand.

Linda said: “His views and his principles would be there all along even though there may have been opposition.

“One being the Miners. In the Mayorship he went to Kent down the mines and completely supported them and we did have the families come up to the Town Hall and give them a nice time.

“They did not have a lot of money and they had a terrible time at that point.

“The children came and they had the run of the Chamber and it was lovely.

“ If you were sat interviewing him now about his political career, he would bring that up because it meant a lot to him.

“There wasn’t a lot he wouldn’t lend his support to if it was important to him and his heart.”

Peter was a big football fan and a supporter of Crystal Palace - which will be a theme for his funeral service on Friday (July 23, 1.30pm, at Surrye and Sussex Crematorium). Peter spent a month of lockdown in hospital but was able to come home before he passed away.

Linda said: “I was worried he would be in hospital the whole time and that was everything he didn’t want.

“In hospital it was only me who was allowed to visit.

“When he came home everyone could come to see him. He had a lot more than some people had. All he wanted was to see everyone and that was granted when he got to come home.”

The funeral service will be family flowers only but donations can be made to Oracle Cancer Trust.