Bill Harber MBE, Barnsley policeman

In the 1960s, Mr Harber, who has died at 86, was the policeman at the four-way crossroads where Mayday Green met Sheffield Road, New Street and Pontefract Road.

In his high-visibility white raincoat and helmet - but distinguished especially by his splendid handlebar moustache - he stood on point duty and controlled, with military precision, the flow of traffic around the notorious Stairfoot roundabout in the town centre.

His familiarity was such that even years after he had retired, the local entertainer Dave Cherry could raise a chuckle with his song about Mr Harber’s presence at the “rarndabart” in those pre-traffic light days.

Various performances of the ditty raised more than £25,000 for the Barnsley Hospice. At one show, at the Holiday Inn at Dodworth, Michael Parkinson was said to have been in the audience, and was regaled with the joke about traffic directions Mr Harber had been fond of telling.

“Hi Jack,” a motorist was said to have shouted at him. “Which way to Manchester?”

“How did you know my name was Jack?” asked the policeman.

“I guessed.”

“Well, guess the way to Manchester.”

Mr Cherry said Mr Harber had been a “real old-time copper”, known to everyone in Barnsley simply as Bobby Bill. His control of the traffic was meticulous, yet he never failed to stop and talk to the locals, when the flow permitted.

“He had been in the army and you could see the military detail in the way he worked,” Mr Cherry said.

In 1994, following his retirement, he was awarded the MBE for services to the town.

He lived latterly in Wrenthorpe, near Wakefield, with his wife, Doris, with whom he had eight children.