TRIBUTES have been paid to tree surgeon Declan Gillan, who died in a motorbike accident near Andover last month.

Gillan was travelling on the B3400, near Hurstbourne Priors, on the evening of Tuesday 17 September when he was involved in a motorcycle accident.

Emergency services were called but Declan was pronounced dead at the scene.

The motorcyclist, who was in his 20s, worked as a tree surgeon at Groundlord and was described as a “golden lad” by the business owner, Josh Pritchard.

On the night of his accident, Declan had finished work early but Josh said he had volunteered to go back to help out his teammates finish a job in a gesture that was said to be typical of his good-hearted nature.

“He called one of the other teams who hadn’t quite finished yet – and this was classic Dec,” said Josh.

“He called through to the others and said, ‘do you want a hand?’ to help them finish early, which was just out of the kindness of his heart.”

He said it was on the way back from helping his teammates that the accident happened.

“He had gone and helped out the lads. That was his ethos,” Josh added.

“He was doing a good deed at the time.”

Declan had started working at Groundlord after Josh asked him to run a new section in the company, which Declan soon transformed into a £200,000 arm of the business.

“He was just a massive part of my company,” said Josh.

“He was a golden lad really. Nothing bad you could say about him. Genuinely just 100 per cent a solid gold boy.

“He’s going to be massively missed by everyone.”

This story first appeared in the Andover Advertiser.