A GRIEVING daughter last night paid tribute to a popular widower whose body was found in a Merseyside dock.

Herbert Owens, 82, was found in his car at the bottom of Seaforth dock after a missing person’s appeal was launched.

He was 15 miles away from his Southport home.

Last night, Mr Owens’s daughter, Barbara Bridge, paid a loving tribute to a “true gentleman”.

Mr Owens, of Montrose Drive, had regular contact with his daughter but she had not heard from him and reported him missing on Wednesday, September 30.

He was last seen with friends in North Wales on September 28.

The former butcher, who was known as Bert, was found by a police underwater search team last weekend.

Officers received information that a silver Rover went into the dock at Liverpool Freeport last Friday. CCTV footage showed a car driving around the dock with headlights on before disappearing.

Police believe it plunged in the water and are not treating his death as suspicious.

Mr Owens’s wife of 50 years, Barbara, died last year.

His son-in-law John Bridge, 63, said: “He was well-liked. He had been quite upset since his wife died but was keeping it together and doing well.”