SIR - Allan Knight was one of those figures who made living in Hampshire a joy. He was our milkman for 24 years.

Typically, when we moved from Ropley to Bramdean more than 10 years ago, he said he'd love to continue to look after us.

With Allan, you didn't feel it was a bid for business: it was an offer from a friend, a man who took pride in his work and seemed to take pleasure from being of service.

Come rain or shine, Allan was there at the crack of dawn: in a billowing weather-proofed cape when it was pouring, and in elegant shorts and T-shirt when the sun shone.

"Hope it's good news, today" were the last words he said to me just two days before his tragic and untimely death.

As usual, I was off at the crack of dawn, too.

But I can see him now: it was a T-shirt and shorts day and he was smiling. Always smiling.

We pray that is how his wife, family and his multitude of friends will remember him: a happy man, a trouper, a hard worker but, above all to those of us who were lucky to have known him and to have been looked after by him, over so many years, a real friend.

Alastair Stewart, ITN newsroom.