FLAMBOYANT York estate agent Claude Elmer has died at the age of 79.

Mr Elmer, of Nether Poppleton, who leaves a widow, Joan, died of a heart attack on Sunday.

Mr Elmer set up his first estate agency in York in the early 1970s, and also opened branches in Hull and Wakefield.

At one stage, he garnered about 35 per cent of the market in York, and he rose to become chairman of the National Corporation of Estate Agents.

He also had a love of showbusiness and entertainment, having rubbed shoulders with the likes of Frankie Vaughan while organising concerts during an earlier career as a servicing chief in the RAF.

In civilian life, he was president for nine years of the Poppleton Road Working Men’s Club, where he loved organising the entertainment.

After selling out his estate agency empire to the Leeds Permanent in 1986, he became involved in grooming young entertainment talents for stardom on television.

In 1996, he collapsed on the dance floor at the Poppleton Road club and underwent a quadruple heart bypass.

His grandson, Steven Beercock, said today that this treatment gave him an extra 14 years of life, which he had lived to the full. And at an age when most people have retired, he returned to estate agency by setting up Claude H Elmer in Front Street, Acomb.

The business specialised in selling properties abroad as well as in York.

Mr Beercock said the estate agency remained open following Mr Elmer’s death, and said his grandfather had always hoped it would continue in business under the Claude Elmer name after he had gone.

He said Mr Elmer had been given a pacemaker before Christmas and had been dancing again last Saturday night at the Poppleton Road club, but had not felt well.

“His daughter, Susan, died two years ago after a long battle with leukaemia, and he’d never been the same since,” he said.

Mr Elmer’s funeral will take place at 10.30am on Friday, May 21 at York Crematorium.

His family have asked for donations to Leukaemia Research rather than flowers.