Staff and readers of a West Country weekly will today pay their final respects to a journalist who succumbed to cancer months after retiring.

As previously reported, Noel Perry died aged 57 shortly after leaving the job at the West Briton he had held for nearly 40 years.

Noel’s funeral will take place this afternoon at St Michael’s Church in Helston in the heart of the West Briton’s patch, followed by a private burial.

Leading members of the community have continued to pay their tributes to, in the words of one, “a journalist of great professionalism.”

A minute’s silence was held at last Thursday’s meeting of Helston Town Council, where Noel was to have been presented with a town plaque.

Afterwards Helston’s mayor Jonathan Radford-Gaby said: “The town will be greatly the poorer for his passing.

“He was a journalist of great professionalism and a very good friend of the town council. I’m sure he will be greatly missed in Helston and beyond.”

Mayor of Porthleven Mark Berryman, who was also a personal friend, added: “Noel was respected as a journalist and as a man. He was somebody that truly believed that people who put time into their community were doing it for the right reason and would always look for the positive in people.

Noel Perry joined the West Briton in 1974 at the age of 18 and remained there until ill health forced his retirement in February.

He rose to hold a number of other roles, including assistant editor, but returned to his love of reporting for the Helston and Lizard community, earning the affectionate nickname of ‘Mr Helston’.