“A LIFE lived to the full” is how friends and family of a popular York man have chosen to remember him following his death earlier this month.

Chris Neumann, of Holme-upon-Spalding-Moor, died on March 8 following a long battle with a rare disease of the bone marrow.

However, those who gathered on Tuesday for the 65-year-old’s funeral in Bursea Chapel in the village heard of a man with a “zest for life” right to the last.

Born in Leeds in 1945, Mr Neumann was a pupil at Archbishop Holgate Grammar School in York and remained an enthusiastic member of the Archbishop Holgate Societies in York and London throughout his life.

It was also in his early teens that Mr Neumann became a marine cadet and developed a love of boats and the sea which would last him a lifetime.

Following a short time at Rowntree in York, after leaving school, he joined Lloyds Bank and stayed there for the rest of his working life – spending some years in London where he met his future wife Mary.

Always feeling the pull of the sea, Mr Neumann’s love of all things nautical saw him enjoy spending time in everything from his own dinghies to racing yachts.

In 2007, he went on the adventure of a lifetime as a crew member on board the ship Soren Larsen as it embarked on three-month crossing of the Pacific – Mr Neumann’s recently acquired skill of navigating by the stars proving invaluable.

His daughter Claire said: “It was one of his lifetime’s ambitions because he got to follow in the footsteps of his hero Captain Cook.”

He was a member of the Lloyds Bank Sailing Club and, up until last summer, was still sailing and working on The Three Brothers, an old sailing coble in Bridlington.

In recent years he proved a big hit with visitors to the Captain Cook Museum in Whitby, where he was a volunteer, thanks to his “encyclopaedic knowledge” of the explorer.

His daughter said: “Captain Cook’s coat of arms included the words “Nil intentatum reliquit”, which translate as “He left nothing unattempted” and that was the way dad lived his life.”

Mr Neumann is survived by his wife, Mary, and daughters, Tracey and Claire. The family is continuing Mr Neumann’s work fundraising for The Anthony Nolan Trust at christopher.neumann.muchloved.com