A FORMER chief sub-editor of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph who spent nearly half a century in local newspapers has died at 89.

Harry Child began his career in 1929, when he joined the Burnley office of the then Northern Daily Telegraph as a junior reporter.

Between 1941 and 43 he was based at the Accrington office, before being seconded to the sub-editors' table in Blackburn.

In 1960, he was appointed chief sub-editor of the newly-named Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

He married Rose, a receptionist and telephonist at the newspaper, and the couple moved to Mellor, where they raised three sons, David, Martin and Andrew.

Mr Child edited The See, the Blackburn Diocesan magazine, for 10 years and was a former sidesman and member of the pariochial church council at St James's Church, Blackburn.