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Family, friends and colleagues mourn Bath journalist

Tributes have been paid to much-loved Bath journalist Tina Currie, whose funeral took place in the city yesterday.

She became known to many as The Voice of Bath after she wrote for the Chronicle for 42 years, and her column became one of the paper’s most popular sections.

Hundreds of family, friends and former colleagues attended to pay warm and loving tributes. Her sons, Rhys and Guy, and her partner of 20 years, Graham Morecroft, led the mourners.

The service was relayed across the world by mobile phone to Tina’s brothers David and Peter Combes and their families in Australia. Tina’s nephew, David Combes, sang two songs – Summertime and God Be In My Head.

Bruce Hockin, TV journalist and friend for many years, led the appreciation with a tribute from Tina’s sons, Guy and Rhys.

“Before Mum died, she wrote me a lovely letter which I have read many times since her passing, as it gives me great comfort,” said Guy Currie.

“In the letter she said not to grieve too long, as she has had a good, fulfilled life, with a wonderful family around her, a great career and lots of loyal, caring friends.

“Mum certainly did have a fulfilled life. During her time at the Chronicle, she rode a camel at the circus, went aboard a warship, drove a racing car around Castle Combe, just to mention a few things.”

Bruce Hockin said: “By happy chance, I spoke to Tina on the phone just a few days before she died.

“She was typical Tina and still very positive, but that was Tina and she would not have wanted this to be a sad occasion.

“Tina touched the lives of so many people. Not just family and friends but hundreds, probably thousands of people she never met – her readers, the people who read her weekly column and all the other things she wrote about.”

After the service, family and close friends went to Haycombe Crematorium, and then gathered at Combe Grove Manor for a wake.

Ex-colleagues paid tribute to the ‘wonderful person’ they knew.

Gerald Walker, a former sub-editor and associate editor of the Chronicle, said: “It was a beautiful service and really did seem to sum up Tina’s life and personality so well. There are many people here from so many papers and broadcasters, which shows the love and regard with which she was held.”

Pat Wheare, editor of the Chronicle from 1968 to 1978, said: “She was a wonderful person and a bloody good journalist. Bruce Hockin said she was not a ‘yes lady’, and he was right. It was a marvellous service, and there was such a good turnout, with all sorts of people here who knew and loved her.”

Bob Constantine, a Chronicle news editor in the 1980s, and now a reporter with ITV West, said: “I came to the Chronicle as a reporter, and what I most remember about Tina is that she acted almost as a surrogate mother to me and the other members of staff.”

Pat McIntyre, a former copytaker at the Chronicle, said: “Tina was such a vibrant person, with a lovely nature, and would have loved it here today seeing all her friends.”

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