HE was known for his love of the ukulele.

And true to form, Ukulele Bob was playing his favourite instrument right to the end as he was at a national ukulele meeting the day before his death.

Last night, tributes were pouring in for the much-loved musician, radio DJ, and “one of a kind” character after his death earlier this week.

Bob Hodson, better known to thousands as Ukulele Bob from the hospital Radio Cherwell, died on Monday aged 89.

Radio Cherwell chairman Neil Stockton said: “He was such a character. I’d be surprised if there was anyone in Oxfordshire who didn’t know him.”

Mr Hodson had two weekly shows on the stations, and was also well-known for visiting the children’s ward at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, each week to draw cartoons for them.

Mr Stockton said: “He was certainly a character. In fact, when he was taken into hospital on Monday, he made the nurse phone us to say he couldn’t come in.

Mr Hodson was born in New Jersey, USA, before moving to the UK as a child. He started playing the ukulele when he was 10 and later edited the magazine for the Ukulele Society of Great Britain.

He also won two national awards at the National Hospital Radio Awards, including for best specialist music programme.

During the Second World War, he was in the Navy and lost two ukuleles “in action”.

In 2007, he told the Oxford Mail: “The first was used as a battering ram by a mate when we were jumped by a group of locals in Ceylon.

“I lost the replacement when I was swept overboard from HMS Ceylon in the Bay of Biscay.”

Mr Hodson lived with his wife, Dot, in Marston.

They had two sons, Dean and Neil, who died last year aged 57 from Crohn’s disease, an incurable auto-immune disease. Mr Hodson organised a jazz night to raise money for research into the disease at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Lydia White, specialist nurse at the JR, said: “He just stuck me as a quint-essential gentleman, always well dressed and he treated you like such a lady.”

Alvin Roy, a jazz clarinet player from Carterton, said: “He was a dear old chap.

“There’s an old musicians’ joke that a gentleman is a man who owns a ukulele, but never plays it in public. We used to rib him about that all the time.

“He was very self-deprecating.”

Mr Roy now plans to make the concert an annual event.

Radio Cherwell colleague Kevin Crouch said: “He was a great guy. It’s such a shock. Although he had been in hospital before, he always bounced back.”

Mr Hodson’s funeral will be held at Oxford Crematorium at 3pm on Thursday.