Mike Lynch was bright, warm, generous and formidably intelligent, say his Suffolk friends.

Former Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk Lord Tollemache and former Suffolk Coastal MP Lord Deben have paid tribute to the tech entrepreneur - seen as one of the brightest IT talents of his generation before his untimely death off the coast of Sicily at the age of 59.

They - and others - remained steadfastly loyal to the tech entrepreneur - even after he was accused by Hewlett-Packard. The American tech giant called foul after acquiring his Cambridge-based software company, Autonomy, for a record sum.

Dr Lynch's friends saw his extradition to the US to face fraud charges as a travesty and continued to support him during his 13-month legal ordeal culminating in a jury trial in San Francisco which ended in June with his acquittal on all charges.

Lord Tollemache - who served as Lord Lieutenant from 2003 to 2014 - appointed Dr Lynch as one of his deputies in the 2010s.

"I very much wanted to try and persuade those very rich people who had now found homes in Suffolk to help the less fortunate people who live in our county with their wealth and be generous supporters of that," he explained.

"Mike Lynch definitely was one of those who I approached and he agreed he would very much like to help.

"He was indeed very generous because he loved Suffolk as we know and lived in Suffolk near Pettistree with a beautiful house and land with his lovely animals and was very happy there with his wife Angela and his beautiful two daughters."

Lord Tollemache and his wife, Xa, stayed in contact with the entrepreneur while he was under house arrest in San Francisco facing trial.

"We became good friends and my wife and I were very fond of all the family," he said.

"We were one of many people who kept in close touch with him. I think he received some comfort that his friends in Suffolk were keeping with him."

From the start they and his other friends in Suffolk were convinced the charges against him were unfounded, he added.

Lord Tollemache and his wife was one of around 40 couples who joined Dr Lynch for a garden gathering in Suffolk a few weeks ago to celebrate his return after his acquittal. 

"My wife and I were invited by him to lunch about two weeks ago with a number of his friends and he was in cracking form and delighted to be home," he recalled.

"He certainly wanted to be home with his family and on his farm back in Suffolk."

He was "warm, glad to see you and very generous - not only with his friends but in particular with helping organisations that needed his help in Suffolk", he said.

His friends were only now coming to terms with his death, he added. "I think all his friends in Suffolk were devastated," he said.

Lord Deben praised Dr Lynch as a good and talented man.

He said: "He was the kindest and most gentle of men and yet he was such a brilliant mind and probably the foremost figure in IT of his generation in Europe.

"He had so much more still to give to Britain and had been treated so badly because of the disgraceful fact that the government allowed his extradition to the US on a trumped-up charge.

"All our sympathy must go to his wife and elder daughter," he said. 

"We in Suffolk will mourn somebody who loved his county, threw himself into so much that happens here from his love of living here to his enthusiastic breeding of Red Poll cattle. We will miss him a great deal."

He recalled how Dr Lynch could be hands-on on his farm, releasing a Red Poll calf stuck during birth.

"He was always willing to listen and discuss and learn from other people - even though he had this formidable intelligence there was nothing flash about him at all."

He added: "It's such a sad thing. Our job now in his memory is to change the law so this cannot happen to anyone else - which is what he wanted to do." 

Mike Lynch (Image: Andy Abbott)

Lord Tollemache (Image: Phil Morley) Lord Deben (Image: Su Anderson)