'Kind and loving' man, 28, died on Norfolk golfing holiday
Hunstanton Golf Club. Picture: Ian Burt - Credit: Ian Burt
The family of a man who died while on a golfing holiday in Norfolk have told an inquest they are determined for him not to be defined by his death.
Benjamin Mortimer, a public relations manager from Berkshire, died on October 9 in Lyng, while on a golfing trip with friends.
An inquest into the 28-year-old's death was held in Norwich on Thursday, during which loved-ones including his wife and mother paid loving tributes to him - and told the hearing his legacy should not be defined by the way he died.
His wife Jacqueline said: "Ben was the kindest and most caring person I ever had the honour to know and love. He was the epitome of the English gentleman - he took pleasure in his work and in his life as a whole.
"He was selfless and thought of everyone else before himself. My life with him was full of love, joy and laughter."
She added that the pair had been married just over a year before he died and were beginning to plan a family.
She said: "He would have taken to fatherhood like a duck to water."
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Mr Mortimer, known as Morty to his friends, travelled to Norfolk from his home in Newbury on October 8 and spent his final day playing golf in Hunstanton.
The inquest heard how he and five friends were staying in an Air BnB in Lyng and spent the evening playing drinking games.
However, in the early hours of the following day he was found unresponsive and despite frantic efforts from both friends and paramedics, died that morning.
A statement read out by senior coroner Jacqueline Lake on behalf of his family echoed his wife's tributes, urging those who knew him to remember him for the man he was, not how he died.
It said: "The way he died will not change the person he was. We are all so proud of the man he was and it is such a tragic loss for our family.
"He had so much more living to do and our family will forever feel incomplete without him.
"The paramedics who attended did everything they could for him and for that we are eternally grateful."
Ms Lake concluded that Mr Mortimer had died an alcohol-related death.
