COPIES of a book containing detailed records of almost every person in Pembroke and Pembroke Dock in the early 19th century are to be sold at bicentenary events.

Richard Rose, author of Pembroke People, which was published in 2000, died aged 66 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on December 16 after a long illness.

A Yorkshireman, he worked as a partner with Druces & Attlee Solicitors in London.

He was a weekly visitor to antiquarian bookshops on Portobello Road, where he bought the canvas-bound diary of Matthew Campbell, a relative of Lord Cawdor of Stackpole, who was the Customs Officer in Pembroke around 1800.

The diary, some of it in code, related Campbell's conquests in the Pembroke area.

Richard's research into all the people in the book expanded into a detailed record of almost everybody in the area during the early 19th century.

The book covers the birth of Pembroke Dockyard, the ships built and the people who built them, and the men from Pembroke who had sailed with Lord Nelson.

Richard spent many years researching the book at various record offices, including the one in Pembrokeshire.

Friend Rosalie Lilwall said: “He loved exploring Pembroke town and visiting Stackpole Court, the ruins of Bangeston Hall (where Matthew Campbell's family lived) and the Pembrokeshire coast.

“Richard Rose was a self-effacing man of good humour and fellowship, an antiquarian extraordinary, a dedicated researcher with a lawyer's discipline for detail and fact, and to whom Pembrokeshire historians will be indebted for generations to come.”

She added: “It is a fantastic book, nothing like has ever been published before. Richard was a good friend and I would not like to see his passing without some recognition of his life and work in the county.”