FAMILY members have paid tribute to an entertainments boss born in a caravan in the GWR Park.

Charlie Edwards, well-known as a member of the Edwards showmen family, died earlier this month aged 72.

It came seven years after he found himself in the media spotlight when stepdaughter Becky was confirmed as the second victim of killer cab driver Christopher Halliwell.

Wife Karen said: "He wasn't only my soulmate, he was my friend. He was everything you could wish for in a man. I have never felt such love as I did for Charlie.

"He was my rock and now my rock's no longer there." The couple had been married for 21 years.

The Shaw man’s daughter Claire, 43, said: “When people have spoken to us about him, the words that have come up most frequently are what a gentleman he was and how hardworking. He was proud to have been born in Swindon with a travelling fair.

“He was so caring, but he also worked hard all his life. When he was younger he would probably work a seven-day week. But he’d always take time off. I used to do swimming when I was younger and he’d take me to the sessions.

“He’d say, if you wanted anything out of life you worked hard. If you don’t work, you don’t have anything to get up for. That’s when you get old.”

In 2011, Wiltshire Police announced that they had found the remains of a woman believed to be Becky Godden-Edwards. The Swindon woman went missing in 2003, aged 20.

Five years after Becky’s body was found, Christopher Halliwell was charged with her murder. In September 2016, a Bristol jury found him guilty.

Claire said: “Dad and Karen [Becky’s mother] got married when Becky was 13. Dad took her on and treated her as another child. When she first went missing, that had a massive impact on the family. When we discovered she’d been murdered, that affected everything.”

Karen said: "He sat by me throughout everything. He really was incredible. There wasn't one day at that court when he wasn't there." Charlie will be buried alongside Becky's remains.

This week, Charlie was described as a fit man who still worked. Daughter Claire, who ran one of her father’s two amusement arcades in Gorse Hill and the town centre, said: “He was very hardworking, 72 when he passed away and still working most days.”

Keen on travel, he took the family to Disneyworld Florida two-years-ago. Charlie and Karen had been planning on taking a world cruise this year, she said.

Claire said: “Dad’s death was really sudden. He was fine, fit and healthy. He’d been to work and had got up to go to get his hair cut when he had a cardiac arrest.”There was little warning, Claire said: “He was showing off about how fit he was.”

He is survived by wife Karen, his four children and nine grandchildren. A funeral will be at Christ Church, Old Town, on Thursday, May 24, 12.30pm.