RETIRED artist Stuart Lawrence, husband of a West Somerset councillor, died three days after suffering a massive stroke at his home.

An inquest heard Mr Lawrence, aged 78, of Quay Street, Minehead, was discovered on the floor of his bedroom early on November 5 last year.

An ambulance was called by his wife, Somerset county Cllr Christine Lawrence, and paramedics who attended said Mr Lawrence displayed classic symptoms of having suffered a stroke.

Mr Lawrence was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital, where a scan showed a bleed on the right side of his brain had caused significant neurological damage.

He was given palliative care and died peacefully on the evening of November 8.

Assistant coroner Stephen Covell heard in written evidence how Mr Lawrence had suffered a heart attack in January, 2020, and also had type two diabetes and problems with his vision.

Mr Lawrence’s son Nathan said in a statement his father would take daily walks around the Minehead Harbour area of up to seven-and-a-half miles as he recovered from his heart condition.

He also continued to paint and draw almost every day, and he played the flute and more recently had started to learn to play a guitar.

Nathan said Mr Lawrence carried out administrative and secretarial work to support Cllr Lawrence in her council duties.

He was a religious man and woke every day to read the Bible and pray, and he had been a volunteer in local schools and also with the Avon and Somerset Police CCTV team and had an active social life.

Mr Covell said: “He was a very active and multi-faceted man who touched many lives and appears to have had a very fulfilling life.”

As part of Mr Lawrence’s recovery from his heart attack he had been prescribed anti-coagulant medicine and Mr Covell said this might have contributed to the bleed on his brain becoming so massive, but would not have caused it.

He said in such cases it was always a question of weighing the risks of blood thinning medication against the benefits.

Mr Covell recorded a verdict that Mr Lawrence died from a stroke and hypertension plus his diabetic and heart conditions.