Jim Barnard, former editor of the Chelsea News and Westminster and Pimlico News, has died aged 91.

Born in Chelsea, he edited his home town newspaper for more than 30 years, having begun his newspaper career as a junior reporter on the West London Press in 1934.

During the Second World War he spent time serving in Armagh in Northern Ireland where, in 1943, he met his future wife, Margaret.

The couple celebrated 60 years of marriage in 2005.

After the war, Jim returned to the West London Press, which later became the Chelsea News, and he became editor in 1949.

He oversaw the relaunch of the paper as well as its change from broadsheet to tabloid, and during the late 1960s he helped see off the threat from a new rival, the Chelsea Post.

After he retired in 1980, Jim helped run the Westminster Talking Newspaper for more than ten years.

He is survived by Margaret and his son, Brian.