Christopher W Gabriel, a charismatic and much loved member of the panel products trade, died on July 14. He was 69.

The eldest son of Christopher (Kit) Gabriel, he started his career with a three-month apprenticeship at French plywood factories under the tutelage of Philip Palmer of Albert Plaut. He worked as a ‘practicant’ at various sawmills in Sweden before joining Price & Pierce, and then Harris Lebus and the Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough.

Mr Gabriel joined the family company Gabriel Wade & English in 1961, serving further apprenticeships in the various departments and branches, until in 1966 he was appointed branch manager at Leicester.

In 1968 Gabriel Wade & English was taken over by Montague L Meyer and Mr Gabriel spent the next two years working under the tutelage of plywood director Eric Newgas.

In 1970 he left MLM to take the post of sales manager with chipboard specialist Tosh & Co. Two years later he transferred to the agency side with Wm Brandts and later with Lumber Products Ltd, developing their chipboard businesses.

The family name of Gabriel had been associated with the timber trade continuously since about 1770 until the takeover by Montague L Meyer in 1968 and it had long been Mr Gabriel’s ambition to revive this association. He finally did so in 1979 when Gabriel Boards was formed to represent several leading chipboard manufacturers for sales in the UK. Following the recession and changing trading patterns, the business was closed in 2001.

During this period, Mr Gabriel was a strong supporter of The Timber Trade Federation and the National Panel Products Association and in 1988-89 he served as chairman of the latter.

The family name survives to this day as Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank of the Thames, no longer as a wharf but as a recreational area.

In 2004 he was honorary secretary of the Association of Timber Agents & Brokers and, with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm, succeeded in achieving a substantial increase in membership.

Mr Gabriel’s abiding hobby was sailing and following the closure of Gabriel Boards he was spent many happy months sailing the Mediterranean in his yacht which he kept in a Turkish port.

He will be greatly missed by his many friends both in the trade and elsewhere.