A FORMER Lancashire Telegraph journalist has died aged 69.

Dermot Martin was the Telegraph’s industrial correspondent in the early 1980s.

Dermot went on to work for the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton, where he had earlier attended university, both as a chief reporter and later as a sub-editor.

He also had stints on the nationals, working on the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph business section and The Observer, and edited the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Analysis Europa magazine, attending science conferences across the world.

Dermot, who lived in Poole, Dorset, leaves a wife, Sharon, and four grown-up children, Lydia, Dermot, Amelia and Liberty.

He started his journalistic career on his hometown paper, the Burnley Express, where he met Sharon.

Described as a man of diverse talents, he also worked as a consultant in further education, competed in the first London Marathon, worked for local authorities including BCP and Dorset County Council and, for a while, owned his own taxi.

His wife Sharon said: “He was everybody’s friend and the centre of all of our lives.”

John Walton, a colleague on both the Telegraph and Burnley Express, added: “He could light up a room by walking into it and nobody went home after being in his company without feeling cheerful. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.”

Dermot’s funeral will take place on Friday at 10.30am at St Mary’s RC Church, Wimborne Road, Poole. BH15 2EG.

Donations in his memory can be made via tapperfuneralservice.co.uk to Macmillan Cancer Relief and Prostate Cancer UK.