Preston Lockwood

 ( 1912 Births ) 

Reginald Herbert Lockwood (30 October 1912 – 24 April 1996), known professionally as Preston Lockwood, was an English radio and television actor.

The eldest son of bus driver Herbert Lewis Lockwood and his wife Ethel May (née Preston), Lockwood was born in Essex; he had two elder sisters, Sylvia (born 1908) and Phyllis (born 1909), and a younger brother, the violinist Ronald Lewis (born 18 October 1921). He used his mother's maiden name as his stage name.

His television credits include the role of Butterfield the butler in several episodes of Jeeves and Wooster.

Other appearances include The Ash Tree, Poldark, Shoestring, Keeping Up Appearances, Tenko, Miss Marple, (' At Bertram's Hotel ', episode), All Creatures Great and Small. Inspector Morse and the 1983 Doctor Who serial Snakedance.

His performances on BBC Radio include Dennis the Dachshund in Children's Hour's Toytown.

His later roles included Coriakin the magician in the 1989 BBC TV adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of The Chronicles of Narnia. Two years before his death he appeared in the first episode of The Vicar of Dibley as Reverend Pottle, whose death midway through the service served as the catalyst for Geraldine Granger's (Dawn French) arrival.

Lockwood died from cancer on 24 April 1996. He had a humanist funeral ceremony, as he had requested.

• Obituary in The Independent