IT WAS mostly about saying a heartfelt farewell to a man who who had lived so hard and died too soon.

But it was also about a spirit of community that the cynics say this country has lost, swamped by greed, selfishness and the art of turning a blind eye.

To many of the people who walked through the streets of Westbourne and attended Ralph Millward’s funeral, he was so much more than the homeless bloke selling the Big Issue outside M&S.

He was a reference point during the day, whether it was for pensioners sharing a few words, traders waving a friendly hello or busy workers and shoppers swapping a smile.

I’m not sure how many people knew his name before his tragic death – indeed how many of us can name the street sellers whose faces we see most working days?

But the reaction to Ralph’s passing – the many tributes, floral and otherwise – has come to epitomise a united sense of overwhelming sadness that accompanies deaths that we cannot understand.

The death of a homeless man who has battled his demons for almost half his life rarely moves a community, let alone a country.

That Ralph Millward provoked so much respect from the people who met him during his time in this area says so much about the man and not his lifestyle.