A GRIEVING friend paid tribute to a “true gentleman” who died in a crash in his three-wheeled Morgan car on the M4.

Ian Parkinson was part of the Morgan Three Wheeler Club with the crash victim, who has been named locally as 68-year-old Gerald Lawford.

Mr Lawford, who lived in Abbey Meads, Swindon, was a former treasurer of the club and died last Thursday morning.

He was in his beloved sports car when the vehicle and a lorry collided on the westbound carriageway of the motorway between junctions 16 and 17.

Ian said: “Gerald was a very good friend.

“We were all setting off on holiday to the Lake District in our Morgans - we’ve cancelled that.

“When he didn’t arrive on time I asked my wife Maria to look on the internet about the journey. When she said there had been a medical emergency on the M4, my heart sank straight away.

“We rang his mobile and the police answered it.

“They said it appeared Gerald had felt unwell and pulled over to the hard shoulder, where he suffered a massive heart attack.

“He was very pleasant, quite unassuming, he was a true gentleman.

“Gerald lost his wife to cancer a few years ago. He was a Yorkshireman born and bred.

“In 2014, he decided to place an order for a new Morgan three-wheeler.

“When he took delivery of it, he joined the three-wheeler club.

“We became very good friends with Gerald and travelled all over the world in our Morgans.

“We recently did a long trip to Norway, driving there in three days.

“When you buy a Morgan you join a community. Gerald took part in anything and everything.

“He was just an all-round exceptionally nice man who wouldn’t say boo to a goose and was pleasant to be around.”

Yesterday would have been Mr Lawford’s 69th birthday.