Ray Lazenby

Mr Lazenby died on Sunday at Scarborough Hospital after a short illness.

He worked for the Scarborough Evening News for more than 40 years, and was its editor for 21 of them between 1965 and 1986.

Colleagues recalled him as a kindly, good-humoured man and a fine journalist who was a stickler for accuracy, insisting on reading every word of the copy for the newspaper before it went to print.

He was born in Bradford in 1923. His family moved to Scarborough three years later, and Mr Lazenby grew up there, working briefly for the treasurer’s department before joining the Evening News as a junior reporter in 1941.

Two years later, he covered one of the grisliest crimes in Scarborough’s history, the Vine Street murder, when 33-year-old Mary Comins was strangled.

The same year, he joined the RAF, learning to fly in South Africa before becoming a bomb aimer and navigator. He later served as an intelligence officer in Egypt.

He rejoined the Evening News in 1947, becoming football, theatre and pigeon correspondent.

Under the eye of then editor and proprietor Sir Meredith Whittaker, Mr Lazenby rose through the ranks, becoming a sub-editor and news editor.

He succeeded Sir Meredith as editor in 1965. He would remain in the editor’s chair for the rest of his career, overseeing 12,000 editions of the paper, before retiring in 1986, aged 63.

Every month during his time as editor, he would work through the night to ensure council meeting reports were in the following day’s edition. He also produced the Evening News almost single-handedly during a seven-week journalists’ strike in the 1970s.

He was for many years a member of the National Union of Journalists. Later, he was a member of the Guild of British Editors, serving as president of its north-east region in 1978-79.

Former Scarborough Mercury editor Eddie Burton said: “I worked with Ray for 16 years. He was a great editor who was very conscientious. He was an excellent journalist whose big ambition was to give Scarborough the newspaper it deserved.”

Outside work, Mr Lazenby loved the theatre and was a lifelong fan of Everton FC. He leaves his wife of 61 years, Jean, four children and nine grandchildren. A funeral service will take place on Wednesday, April 27, at St Mark’s Church, Newby, at 11.45am.