CHARLES HODGKINSON gave 22 years of loyal and valuable service as a director of Huddersfield Town.

A popular figure in his time at the club – a true gentlemen in the very best traditions of the phrase – he died aged 81 after suffering cancer.

Always helpful and approachable, he first became involved with Town after handling business matters for former chairman Keith Longbottom at the time of the boardroom takeover from Frank Drabble’s stewardship in the mid 1970s (becoming club solicitor in 1974).

He didn’t become a director at that time because of his commitments as a solicitor in the family law firm of Dransfield & Hodgkinson in Penistone – which was set up by his great grandfather well over 200 years ago and is now Pennine Law.

Elected a director at Town in March 1981, his counsel was appreciated by colleagues, managers and players alike and he forged a close bond with Eoin Hand, who has remained a friend since managing Town in the early 1990s.

While he was closely involved in Town matters for two decades, he made a number of key contributions including re-negotiating the lease on the old Leeds Road ground with Kirklees Council. His work on that put the club in a solid position to make their switch to the new stadium in 1994, although he had left the board at that stage.

“My father was very passionate about Town but one of his great strengths was that he never pretended to know more about the game than he actually did,” said son Richard.

“What he preferred to do was help in areas where he knew exactly what he was doing and could bring his knowledge and expertise to bear.

“That’s why he was called on to work on the new lease for Leeds Road and he put hundreds of hours into that, making sure the club could transfer across to the new stadium as smoothly as possible.”

He was heavily involved with the formation of the Patrons Association and, in the true legal sense, could be said to have ‘founded’ it.

He also instigated the share issue in the late 1980s which gave supporters the chance to buy a form of shares in Town.

This was innovative and tricky legally, as the shares were specially issued for the supporters and distinct from those held by the directors.

This was long before the now-routine practice of clubs selling shares to supporters and was one of the first such schemes carried out by a Football League club.

The Patrons and the share issue were quite radical ideas for the time and raised useful money at a time when the club was short of it.

While the family lived in Penistone when he was young, Charles schooled in Shrewsbury before going to Lincoln College, Oxford.

He played football for Huddersfield Amateur in his youth and became involved in rowing at Oxford, having trials for the Boat Race but not making the final-day teams.

He worked for the well-known London legal practice of Slaughter and May before returning to the family firm in the late 1950s. He didn’t finally retire completely until a couple of years ago, around the time his wife Kit died.

Interested in most sports, golf was a particular passion and, living in Cawthorne – where he had two decent-size golf holes on his farmland and played them most days – he joined Silkstone Golf Club in the late 1960s and remained a member ever since.

He leaves two sons, Richard and Ian, and two grandchildren, Jack and Charlotte.