Well-known Ely character Michael ‘Macka’ McGinn has finally been laid to rest two months after his body was found in his city home.

Now friends of Mr McGinn, who had a checkered history and was a regular feature of city centre life, are hoping to get a permanent tribute to him and have been fundraising to buy memorial stones.

John Shepherd, a friend of Mr McGinn’s for many years, was the person who found the 80-year-old’s body at his home in John Beckett Close on May 18, has so far raised around £300 towards the memorials.

He was also responsible for organising a wake following Mr McGinn’s pauper’s funeral at Ely cemetery on July 8.

Mr Shepherd said: “Macka was such a character, he had great charisma and we would like to do something to permanently remember him. He was a regular outside the Lunch Box on the Market Place and I’m sure people will remember him. People have already given generously to ensure he had a good send off with the wake at the Town House, and the Minster, where he was a regular are going to put a plaque on his favourite seat and put a photo of him up.”

A collecting tin for donations towards the memorials, which will hopefully be located at various sites in the city depending on the council’s permission, will be on the bar at the Minster.