PATRICK 'Rick' Hobbs was devoted to rock group Led Zeppelin and its founder, guitar legend Jimmy Page.

For 40 years he was Page’s assistant, chauffeur and Mr Fixit and when Rick died earlier this year aged 81, band members and their families secretly attended his woodland burial.

For the last ten years of his life, frail Rick was cared for by family friend Sue Cook.

His death uncovered another secret.

Tucked inside Rick’s Led Zeppelin LP covers, Mrs Cook found four pencil sketches by the great Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais, believed to be gifts from the band for his devoted service.

The drawings, done when the precocious Millais was aged just 14, will be sold by Devon fine art auctioneers Chilcotts, at The Silver Street Saleroom, Honiton on Saturday.

“Rick was a chauffeur for a London company and met the band when they hired him,” said Mrs Cook, 46, who lives in Somerset.

“They hit it off right from the start and he became Jimmy Page’s right hand man.

"He was his valet, PA and chauffeur because Jimmy never learned to drive.

"Even in his 70s Rick would get a phone call, jump in his car and drive up to London to sort something out for him.”

Rick was no stranger to the stars - his other clients included Sean Connery, John Travolta, Barry Manilow and Michael Caine and he even drove one of the Minis in The Italian Job on one occasion when the regular stunt driver failed to turn up for work.

But he spent most of his time with Led Zeppelin.

“Rick always had a clear brain and was highly trusted by the group”, Mrs Cooke said.

“He used to ferry their children about and they knew they would be safe with him.

"They regarded him as a father figure. He was very discreet.

"He put John Bonham to bed and was the last person to see him alive,” she said, referring to tragic band member Bonham’s death in his sleep in 1980.

“Rick had an extensive record collection and I found the drawings when I was going through them.

"I just put them on one side and didn’t think much about them but then I thought they might be important, so I took them to Chilcotts who have had them authenticated.”

The four drawings are all dated May 1843. Millais was aged 14 and at the time he had won a silver medal at the Royal Society of Arts for drawing from the antique.

Pick of the four is a Venetian scene with a gondolier serenading a lady at a window above.

Beneath the drawing is an extract from Burns’ poem, ‘Farewell Thou Stream’.

It reads: The music of thy voice I heard/Nor wist while it enslav'd me!/I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear'd/Till fears no more had sav'd me!"

Another shows a Crusader parting from his love, his horse held waiting to carry him away. Beneath the drawing is verse four from the Burns poem, ‘Ae Fond Kiss’: Had we never lov'd sae kindly/Had we never lov'd sae blindly/Never met - or never parted/We had ne'er been broken-hearted. Millais was clearly a Burns fan. In 1858, he was a runner-up in the Burns Centenary Poetry Competition, sponsored by the Directors of the Crystal Palace Company.

The other two drawings show respectively a young woman with suitors and a historic battle with Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Said auctioneer Duncan Chilcott: “Jimmy Page is known to be a passionate collector of Victorian art and it is tempting to believe the drawings were given to Rick by him, supported perhaps by the fact that Rick chose to protect them by slipping them inside Led Zeppelin LP covers.

"As a result, they are in excellent condition and not faded.

"They are sure to attract interest from Millais scholars and collectors.”

The drawings are together estimated at £2,000-3,000.