Tributes have been paid to a kind-hearted Sheringham man who spent his life living in the town.

Edward George Love, who was more commonly known as George, or by his nickname of 'okie dokie', taken from his well-used phrase, died aged 83 in October.

He was born and grew up in Sheringham, attending Sheringham County Primary School as a boy.

Eddie Page, who used to run an antiques shop in the town and is involved with its carnival, had been friends with Mr Love for 78 years.

"We lived maybe a couple of hundreds of yards apart," he said. "We used to play football when we were seven or eight, in the mid to late 1940s."

The pair went to school together, and when they left in 1951 Mr Love went on to work for an electrical shop.

He had a brief stint selling seafood with friends, but spent most of his career working as a civilian bomb disposal engineer.

He would take bombs and mines out of cliffs along the east coast, Mr Page said.

He said Mr Love was a "very kind" person, citing a a time on holiday in Tenerife when, after Mr Page suffered bad sunstroke, Mr Love sat with him to keep him company as he recovered for two days.

A keen traveller, Mr Love was in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami, and was so moved by the damage he decided to help.

On his return, having met a group of long tail boat fisherman whose boats had been destroyed, he bought three sets of sonar fishing equipment and took it back to Thailand to help them recover.

After his retirement, Mr Page said he would often pop by the antiques shop and chat - and he had a regular seat at The Crown pub in the town.

But it was his uplifting phrases that earned him a spot in people's hearts - Mr Love was known for saying "if you think bad, you'll be sad", and "carry on regardless" as his farewell.

"He was a star," Mr Page said. "He was kind. He was really well-known and well-respected, and would stop and have a chat with anyone."

He said that even in his later years he would take a trip to the seafront every year to look out at sea.

The Crown landlord Bob Brewster said he had known Mr Love since he first came to Sheringham in the 1970s.

A wake was held at the pub in his memory.