INTERIOR designer David Hicks kept a detailed log of exactly how he wanted his funeral to be.

He designed his own coffin, organised the cortege and kept a list of pallbearers.

If they died he simply crossed out the names and put in new ones.

Today his wishes were followed to the letter when Mr Hicks, of The Grove, Brightwell Baldwin, was buried in the south Oxfordshire village following a funeral at Ewelme parish church.

Mr Hicks died, aged 69, at his home last Sunday. His widow, Lady Pamela Hicks, said: "David was a perfectionist who had planned everything down to the last detail.

"We found a book titled David Hicks - His Demise which had everything in it and it made it so much easier for the family. Naturally everything has been followed to the letter."

The coffin was handmade to his specifications out of sycamore by Thorneycrofts, of Southampton, a former shipbuilder. When the firm ceased shipbuilding, Mr Hicks used many of its skilled craftsmen in his interior designs.

Their woodworkers carved sycamore cladding to his design, which was then used to cover an ordinary coffin.

Mr Hicks was a past master of the Worshipful Company of Salters, and fully-robed representatives were due to be in the funeral procession.

Mr Hicks, along with the late John Fowler, turned interior design into a fine art and worked on the QE2, a royal yacht for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the new library at the British Embassy in Washington and wrote books on design.

He is survived by Lady Pamela, their daughter India, a model, and son Ashley, an architect in London.

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