Peter Lawrence the father who never saw the Claudia Lawrence investigation progress

Mr Lawrence, died in February aged 74, without knowing what had happened to Claudia, who was 35 when she was last seen walking near her home at Heworth in York.

He reported her missing on March 20, 2009, after she failed to arrive for work the previous day.

While there was a blaze of publicity in the early days, the fact her disappearance remains firmly embedded in the public's psyche owes in no small part to his efforts.

In the early years her family and friends were convinced she was alive and they would be reunited.

A decade after her disappearance Mr Lawrence admitted publicly for the first time he feared she was dead. “It is hard to say that, and I have never told anyone that before. But I have to come to terms with it, as it may very well be the truth," he said.

A solicitor, who was president of the Yorkshire Law Society in 2001, and set up his own practice in 2004, his legal skills were useful in helping draft new laws aimed at easing the difficulties facing families whose loved ones had disappeared.

Mr Lawrence, along with other families and the charity Missing People, campaigned for the introduction of the Guardianship (Missing Person’s) Act 2017, also known as “Claudia’s Law" .

The changes allow families of people missing for more than 90 days to deal with their legal and financial affairs, giving them the ability to suspend direct debits for bills and mortgage payments.

Previously, there was no mechanism in England and Wales to protect the property and affairs of a missing person. It meant families had to have the missing person declared dead, adding to the emotional pressure of an already a fraught time.

Mr Lawrence, who received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2018, also found comfort singing with the Missing People Choir, who got to the final of the Britain’s Got Talent TV show in 2017.

After his funeral his friend and media spokesman Martin Dales issued an impassioned plea for anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “Despite the exhaustive efforts of Claudia’s late father Peter, family, friends and North Yorkshire Police, there are still no answers. It is tragic that Peter has died not knowing what has happened to her.

"More to the point, in light of no-one being brought to justice, there are still one or more people at large’ in York or maybe somewhere else who do know what has happened to Claudia, and potentially remain a threat to the communities in which they and we live.”

Miss Lawrence’s mother, Joan Lawrence, told The Yorkshire Post in March that she had a "gut feeling this year will bring something that could lead us to discover what has happened to Claudia.

She said: “I pray for that each day. I don’t feel any cut-off from Claudia as a mother. I have never felt that. I do not feel a tug that that has happened.”