Profile: Gifted leader ruled empire with iron rod

His reputation in the highly technical field of metrology put him in the top flight of specialists in this country, but also brought him respect on the international platform.

Yet despite that ability Mr Buckley was also a compulsive liar who, seemingly, was unable to tell the truth even when there was no recognisable benefit from his falsehoods.

It meant that those who believed they knew him well discovered after his death that his family circumstances were very different to those he had described.

His reasons for creating such a smokescreen remain unclear, however, because the details he falsified were in many cases apparently pointless.

"You have to remember, he ruled that place with a rod of iron," according to a rival businessman who had contact with the trading standards unit.

"We heard his deputy refer to him as Mr Buckley and we thought it was a joke but we realised it wasn't a joke, this was the way his deputy had to speak to him.

"He was a very domineering character. He tended to dominate meetings.

"Sheffield's management had this really dominating character, who was a total Walter Mitty, as we would know.

"He told me lies at social meetings about where he was born and went to school but I cannot see any benefit in the untruth," he said.

Mr Buckley's confidence in his own position meant that delegates were invited to a tour of his empire, the unit's laboratories in Chapeltown, every time an industry conference was held in Sheffield.

That inevitably left others in the trade wondering how it was possible the unit was able to afford its lavish and extensive facilities, questions that never seemed to bother him.

Mr Buckley had managed the unit since it was formed, having worked there under its previous guise as part of the now disbanded South Yorkshire County Council and had a reputation for intimidating those who failed to agree with, or accept, his decisions and opinions.

On occasions that led to conflict with his workforce, but his autocratic management style was generally accepted because it seemed he had the Midas touch, bringing stability and an increasing workload to the unit.

"There were endless discussions about how the hell he justified that and where on earth did the money come from," the businessman said.

"A lot of us used to complain that Mike's prices were such that he was depressing the whole market. "We just could not compete.

"If it was being calibrated genuinely, and that is one of the big ifs, the amount of man-time needed meant he could not possibly have done it unless he was persuading people to work for nothing."