Reg Evans, who was a stalwart at the Press Association news agency for a period spanning five decades, has died aged 81.
He was associate editor for 18 years and as such was a key figure in charge of day-to-day news.
Evans joined the Exchange Telegraph, PA’s rival home agency, at the age of 23, and worked at the joint PA/Extel law courts service, of which he eventually became editor.
He was made news editor of the 1970 general election campaign coverage and after that was appointed as PA’s first weekend editor.
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Evans was then appointed associate editor, putting him in charge of the agency’s news, sport and picture output.
What particularly delighted him about this role was that it strictly involved no administrative duties. He used to say how as he walked into the office, he was wondering what big stories “would excite us today”.
In fact Evans was at the centre of every big news story that broke during his nearly 20-year stint as associate editor.
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After leaving school, Evans became a tea boy on the old Daily Graphic, before working on a weekly paper in north-east London. During his subsequent two-year National Service he became one of the last newspapermen running a daily paper for British and American troops in Trieste.
He retired from the Press Association in 1991.
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