Raymond Baxter has died at the age of 84.

For many years he was BBC TV's 'voice of motor racing'. He had a voice like warm molasses; at the same time it was friendly and also authoritative. When people speak of 'BBC English' they mean Raymond Baxter, perfect enunciation, yet easy with it, no artificial additives.

Baxter's last assignment was at the 2006 Goodwood Revival Meeting, the day before he was taken ill. It brought memories flooding back to those of us who had watched Goodwood on TV in the 1950s, when the anorak was the sole preserve of the Inuit.

He had flown Spitfires during the War ('I sat in the cockpit and was scared stiff, I was nineteen and was about to fly the most beautiful aircraft in the world') and was naturally first choice for television coverage of events such as the Farnborough Air Show and the first flight of Concorde. He had also flown Mustangs and Dakotas and was twice mentioned in dispatches.

Raymond was very knowledgeable about cars, boats and aircraft and that knowledge came from first hand experience. He was a co-founder of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. These were the erstwhile trawlers, pleasure boats, and the like, who evacuated most of the surviving British, and Allied, armies in 1940. It was for this that, in 2002, he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) but that was just an excuse to honour him. Baxter was an essential part of a period of postwar Britain, he was part of the fabric of a time and of the lives of those of us who lived through that time.

He was a contributor to BBC TV's Sportsnight programme in the 1950s and he did not just report on the Monte Carlo Rally, the programme used to enter a car with Baxter heading the team. It would be something like an Austin A105 with a few extra lights and spare wheels (and a Halda 'Speed Pilot' which worked out average speed), but Raymond was in the thick of the action, driving on the actual ice that the front runners were.

Actually, he once finished third, as co-driver to Peter Harper in a Sunbeam Rapier. You can warm to a TV presenter who finishes on the podium in what was, at the time, the world's most important rally.

He was a commentator who was first choice for the areas in which he had special expertise, but was much more than that. He was a commentator at both of the great postwar British state occasions: the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. One was a day of optimism, the start of what we hoped would be a New Elizabethan age; the other was closing the curtains on another part of British history. For most of us, who watched these events at home, Raymond was an integral part.

For many years he presented a weekly programme called 'Tomorrow's World' which had huge viewing figures. The format was presenting the latest developments in science. Some of the proposals disappeared without a trace, but I can remember Raymond explaining a new concept called a 'laser'. It seemed Sci Fi at the time, in 1958, now I have lasers in my home, and Baxter's clear explanation of the principle is all the information I've ever needed. He was an amazing communicator, he got to the heart of the matter.

One of his co-presenters on the programme has said that Raymond was the last broadcasting star to present the programme. The producers decided they needed younger presenters, to appeal to 'youth'. They did not understand that young people actually like presenters who have a natural authority, who can draw a line in the sand. When you are young, you need guidance.

Raymond Baxter was the uncle of your dreams, the sparky guy who knew what was what, and always had a twinkle in his eye. He had an edge of irony: 'After two and a half years of flying Spitfires, I had the greatest respect for Americans. They were the only people who managed to shoot me down.'

Baxter's name will not be known to many a reader of pitpass.com, but many will have heard his easy voice in documentaries which have drawn on the BBC archive.

Raymond Baxter was a man whose family was the centre of his life. The word that anyone who ever met him reaches for is 'gentleman'. There is no greater praise in the vocabulary of an Englishman.

Mike Lawrence