My father, David Tully, who has died aged 77, was not born in Manchester but spent most of his life there working as a solicitor and was a great champion of the city as well as of the north-west of England.
David was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in India, one of six children of British parents, William, a senior partner in the Gillanders Arbuthnot conglomerate, and his wife, Patience (nee Betts). The family returned to the UK during the second world war on a hazardous crossing on a US ship, the Chinese Prince, settling first in Winchester, Hampshire, and then in Manchester, where William became a director of the engineering company Renold Chains.
After leaving Sherborne school, David joined the Manchester solicitors Addleshaw Sons & Latham as an articled clerk. While studying at Guildford Law School in Surrey, he met Susan Arnott in Godalming; they were married within a year, in 1965.
He practised at Addleshaw Sons & Latham for more than 40 years, rising to become a managing and senior partner and helping it to become the international law firm Addleshaw Goddard. He was also president of the National Young Solicitors in 1976-77 and the Manchester Law Society in 1984-85.
David worked quietly for a number of charitable causes, including Cheadle Royal hospital, Booths and Kershaw trusts, Cransley school and Manchester Grammar school.
After retiring from Addleshaws in 1999, he chaired the Joseph Holt brewery and was vice-chair of the Cheshire building society. He was a passionate Mancunian and an ambassador for the north-west of England – even, on one occasion, standing on a soapbox at Hyde Park Corner, London, to extol the virtues of the Lancashire cricketer Harry Pilling after one of the county’s victories in a Gillette Cup final at Lord’s.
He enjoyed membership of some of the north-west’s oldest societies, including John Shaw’s and the Loyal and Ancient Corporation of Ardwick.
More privately he was noted for his humanity. He seemed to have an instinct that always put him in the right place at the right time for anyone in need. He gave the wisest and most supportive of counsel.
David is survived by Susan, their three children, Louise, Clare and me, and seven grandchildren, and by four of his siblings, Prue, Mark, Bob and Lissy.
