He was admitted to the Royal Derby Hospital on November 18 but his condition deteriorated and he died two days later.

Just two months earlier, as part of a claim for compensation against Rolls-Royce, he made a statement detailing his working history, which was read out at Thursday’s hearing.

Derby and Derbyshire Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Hilditch, who leaves his wife Kim, 61, a retired teacher, was born in Derby and left school in 1968.

He took up a three-year drawing office apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce the same year and he said he first started to become exposed to asbestos at the site in Derby.

Once he completed his apprenticeship, he carried on working for the company in the sub-contractor purchasing office.

In his statement, Mr Hilditch said: “During both jobs, I was exposed to asbestos. In fact it is quite alarming to realise how many places that exposure took place.

“As an apprentice, the offices I worked in would regular have alterations and be reconfigured with partition walls moved around disturbing asbestos in the ceiling.

“When I went into the test beds, the pipes were lagged with asbestos as, again, was the ceiling.

“Asbestos was in the atmosphere, the test beds were tired and parts of it would disintegrate and the dust would be in the air.”

Mr Hilditch said his work in the sub-contractor purchasing department, from 1971 to 1983, would see him travel to suppliers where, again, some of the buildings had asbestos in the ceilings and dust would be disturbed and sent into the atmosphere.

He said: “This was not an office-based job. I would regularly be on shop floors being exposed to whatever activities were happening.”

The inquest was told how Mr Hilditch met his wife, Kim, in 1970 and the pair were married in 1976.

After leaving Rolls-Royce in 1983, he trained at Loughborough University to be a teacher, qualifying and working at a number of schools including Sinfin Community School.

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In 1990, Mr Hilditch set up his own company teaching first aid, including in schools.

He said: “I spent a long period of my life volunteering with Derby Mountain Rescue, 47 years in total and 33 as its team leader.

“For 16 years, I was the incident controller and I also worked for a long time with Scouting which I felt very passionate about.

“I was awarded the Silver Wolf award, which is the best award you can receive in Scouting.

“I have been on nine Arctic trips and the next one I was due to go on was the Greenland in 2016 but I had to withdraw those plans due to my illness.

“This disease has taken that from me, I wanted to see out my role and leave on a high.”

In December, mourners packed into Derby Cathedral for Mr Hilditch’s funeral.

Volunteers from Derby Mountain Rescue team donned their red coats in his honour as they lined the chapel.

Dr Diedre McKenna, the consultant pathologist who carried out Mr Hilditch’s post-mortem examination gave a cause of death as hemopericardium, a collection of blood in the sac of the heart and bronchial pneumonia, caused by malignant mesothelioma, due to asbestos exposure.

Paul McCandless, assistant Coroner for Derbyshire, in reaching a conclusion that Mr Hilditch died as a result of an industrial disease, said: “Rarely do I hear such a compelling and detailed work history as I have done with Stephen Hilditch MBE.

“There is no doubt, in my mind, that his death came about due to his exposure to asbestos.”

Source: Derby Telegraph