Former Daily Echo news editor, Raymond Horsfield, has died at the age of 85. Son of Clarence Horsfield, a mill worker, and his wife Hilda, he was born in Brierfield, Lancashire in 1935 and grew up and attended schools in the Colne area with his younger sister Celia.

Ray had just turned eight the day before his father, who was serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the Second World War, was killed at the Battle of Longstop Hill in Tunisia in April 1943.

On leaving school he worked at a solicitor’s office in Burnley, and then was a cub reporter on a local newspaper, drawing on his experience as a boy scout of the 1st Colne Mayor’s Own and working in a newsagent in Nelson when he was a teenager.

In 1953 Ray enlisted with the RAF for his National Service using his nine months as a cadet with the Air Training Corps to secure a place.

A year later he was stationed in Sellito, Singapore and on discovering he had clerical skills became an RAF clerk, never getting the chance to fly an aeroplane. It was here he met Marjorie Rowe who was serving with the W.R.A.F. and they were married in August 1955.

In 1956 their first child Belinda was born and shortly after they returned to the UK where Ray secured a job with the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, becoming the District Chief reporter for Burnley. In 1965 he was appointed the News Editor of the Evening Star at Blackburn.

In 1979 he left Lancashire becoming the News Editor of the Evening Echo Bournemouth.

A proud Lancastrian, known for ‘speaking plainly’ Ray often fought for the ‘underdog’ and took many a young reporter under his wing.

Ten years later, under the editor Pat Fleming, Ray was appointed Associate Editor. In the 1990s he introduced a Gardeners’ Echo supplement, writing and editing the material.

A few years later, working with a small, dedicated team, Ray launched Prime Time, a stand-alone publication for the over-50s.

After retiring in 2000, he continued as a freelance writer, and then worked part-time for the local tourism office in the New Forest.

His journalistic legacy was passed on to three of his children. Christopher worked for the Advertiser series in Southampton, sadly he died in 1993. Andrew was a photographer for the Advertiser series and the Daily Echo and Michaela was a Newspaper Librarian and nostalgia writer.

His eldest child, Belinda, was an art teacher in Petersfield and now runs her own workshops.

In his later years Ray suffered from dementia and died at Bournemouth Hospital from pneumonia on January 10, leaving behind his children, grandchildren, Michael and Emma, and companion Jill Millikin.

The funeral was held at Hinton Wood Burial Ground, with donations going to the Journalists’ Charity at sarahpearce@pressfund.org.uk