MICHAEL Rose is to retire as the Senior Coroner for West Somerset at the end of the month.

He is one of the longest serving Coroners in England and Wales having conducted inquests in the Taunton Deane and West Somerset area for almost 50 years.

Mr Rose, who is 82, will sit for the final time on Tuesday, March 31.

Since he took up the role of Deputy Coroner in 1967 – he was appointed to his current role in 1984 – he has carried out thousands of legal investigations into deaths in the patch.

Mr Rose, who was born in London, married his wife, Gillian, in 1957, and the couple have three married children, who all have children.

After completing his education at prep school, he went to the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, and after that the Royal Naval College Greenwich before embarking on a career in the Royal Navy.

He spent time in America and the West Indies, assisting civil authorities with actions such as putting down a riot and clearing up after a hurricane in Grenade.

He also joined action to quell civil unrest in British Guyana and was part of naval support in the Falkland Islands and British Honduras when they were threatened with invasion, and in British Antarctica where Argentina had established a base.

He was later based in the Mediterranean and in 1958 transferred as a lieutenant from active list to emergency list with the Royal Navy.

Mr Rose qualified as a solicitor in 1962 and two years later was appointed partner at law firm Clarke Willmott & Clarke, serving as senior partner for five years.

Last year he conducted the high-profile inquest into the deaths of seven people who died in a multiple vehicle pile-up on the M5 at Taunton in November 2011.