Trevor Larsen, former Lord Mayor of Hull

A Labour councillor who served from 1983 to 1995 and again from 1998, he was in the 1990s chairman of the council’s cultural services committee, a role in which he helped lead the development of the Museum Quarter in the Old Town. The project included the construction of the Streetlife Museum and the restoration as a visitor attraction of the Arctic Corsair trawler.

Mr Larsen also helped secure funding for the 1991 facelift of the Ferens Art Gallery.

His colleague on the council. Steve Wilson, said he had been struck by Mr Larsen’s professionalism and knowledge, but that it was only later, when he became Lord Mayor, that he realised the depth of his knowledge of local history.

“He had a great eye for detail,” Coun Wilson said. “They don’t make councillors like that any more.”

Mick Stanley, Hull’s former head of museums and galleries, added that Mr Larsen had always spoken of investing in Hull’s culture, and would be remembered for laying the foundation of the current year’s City of Culture bid.

Mr Larsen was Lord Mayor in 2006-7, and found himself in a maelstrom of political intrigue, as the Liberal Democrats secured an unprecedented victory and seized overall control of the city council.

He took his final bow in 2011, having failed to secure a nomination from Labour, and became a prolific writer online about Hull’s heritage and history.