A YORK man whose wife's grave was stripped of flowers by callous thieves says his faith in mankind has been restored after being inundated with flowers and cards from members of the public.

Edward Allsopp, 89, from Hambleton Way, Huntington, was devastated when more than 50 begonias were removed from his wife Labella's grave at York Cemetery, along with a new plant pot.

The theft also angered his daughter Doreen Allsopp, who said the thieves should be ashamed of themselves, and staff at the cemetery also slammed the heartless thieves.

But now the Allsopps say they are overwhelmed by the public's generosity since the incident was reported in the Evening Press on Monday.

Forty six begonias were delivered to Mr Allsopp with a card signed by "The lads who print your Press", which is believed to have come from Evening Press workers who wanted to remain anonymous.

There was also a generous offer from Asda in York to replace all the stolen flowers and send a gardener to the cemetery to plant them.

Neighbours and friends of Mr Allsopp have also delivered cards and plant pots to him in a bid to help him get over the incident and people have stopped him in the street to say how sorry they were about the theft.

Mr Allsopp said: "I want to thank all these people.

"You have no idea how devastated I was, but the response to this has been fantastic, I can't believe it.

"I lost faith in people but I've really got it back. There are so many nice people about."

His daughter Doreen said: "People have come up to me and Dad and told us how sorry they were to hear about what happened, there's been a great response."

Mr Allsopp, who regularly spends hours of his free time maintaining his wife's and other graves in the cemetery, said the gifts will enable him to restore the grave to its former glory.

Updated: 09:08 Thursday, June 27, 2002