Heir hunters tracked down the cousin of a Hull veteran to make sure at least one family member could be at his funeral.

More than 350 people paid their final respects to Richard ‘Dick’ Norris on Monday after an appeal was made for mourners to attend his funeral in Driffield.

Mrs Warriner found out Mr Norris the cousin of her mother, Arabella Milnes Norris (nee Fairbrother), when probate genealogists Finders International called her brother.

The company, which is also the star of BBC’s Heir Hunters, decided to try to track down Mr Norris’ family after reading the Mail’s appeal last week.

Mrs Warriner said: “We were surprised when we found out he had died actually because obviously we found him on our family tree, but we thought he must have passed away many years ago. He was 97.

“My mother had been very close to all her cousins when she was younger but they grew apart as they grew older.”

Finders International

M.D Daniel Curran of said: We looked into the aunts and uncles of the deceased, and in total found six cousins once removed and two cousins twice removed, both on the maternal and paternal sides to the deceased’s family. We are delighted that a cousin, Mrs Elizabeth Warriner attended the funeral. Mrs Warriner was very happy to have been afforded the opportunity to do so.

This article was first featured in the Hull Daily Mail