A RESPECTED local journalist whose career in newspapers spanned 50 years has died at the age of 92.

Tony Frowd-Jones was born in Dovercourt, Essex, and educated in Salisbury. After leaving school, he joined the Salisbury Journal as a trainee reporter.

He served in the Army but was invalided out due to rheumatic fever, resuming his career at Poole-based Times Herald.

He became a sub-editor, chief sub-editor and finally editor of the newspaper group, which published the Bournemouth Times, Christchurch Times, Swanage Times and Poole Herald.

Tony transferred to the Daily Echo, Bournemouth as features editor, remaining in the post until his retirement in 1984.

He never married and lived with his mother Grace for 75 years. The pair shared a rented bungalow in Sandbanks until her death at the age of 96 in the early 1990s. Tony spent his final years living in a warden-assisted flat in Lower Parkstone.

Judith Wilson said Tony’s closest remaining relatives were, like her, second cousins. “He had a wicked sense of humour.”

She added that he continued to enjoy walking and listening to classical music until near the end of his life. In February, he broke his hip in a fall. He developed pneumonia and suffered a stroke a week before his death in Poole Hospital on May 20.

David Ross, who took over as the Echo’s features editor when Tony retired, said he visited him in Alderney Hospital about three weeks before he died. “He is probably the most cultured person I have ever known.”

Retired journalist Dave Till, who was given his first job by Tony in 1963, said: “He was a courageous editor who dealt brilliantly with big local angles on news, including the Great Train Robbery and the Christine Keeler scandal.

“He also splashed the first gay wedding, when two male bus workers were hitched, but the story didn’t go down well with the Poole Herald’s rather conservative readers. Tony was an inspiration to young journalists.”

Another former colleague, Gay Pirrie-Weir said: “He was my first editor. He was just wonderful and incredibly funny. He was tiny, twinkly and very kind.”

The funeral is to take place at Poole Crematorium at 2pm on Friday, June 3.