A former regional daily journalist who also served in the Antarctic with the Royal Navy has died aged 80.

Tributes have been paid to Tony Carter, left, who was a senior member of the Lancashire Telegraph’s editorial team over more than four decades.

Tony’s career saw him serve as chief reporter and later a features writer with a roving commission, which saw him report for the Telegraph from the Far East, Africa, the United States and the Falkland Islands.

He retired in 2002, at which point he was serving as assistant news editor supervising the Telegraph’s large corps of community correspondents.

Former Telegraph assistant editor Nick Nunn said: “Tony was a cornerstone of the papers operations for four decades. He was a fountain of knowledge about East Lancashire.”

According to an obituary written by former colleague Eric Leaver, Tony began his career on his hometown weekly The Visiter, in Morecambe, before completing national service in the Navy.

He took part in HMS Protector’s first Antarctic patrol during the winter of 1955-56, serving as a first-class stoker in the Falkland Islands, the British Antarctic Survey Territory, South America and the West Indies.

Tony later joined the Navy’s deep diving and submarine rescue vessel, HMS Reclaim, which was the last British warship to have sails.

Returning to journalism, he joined the Coventry Evening Telegraph and then became a reporter at the Blackburn head office of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, at the time when it was part of the Thomson Regional Newspapers group.

He worked on the Sheffield Telegraph, and was then appointed to the editorial team at TRN’s head office in London where he filed feature stories to group’s nationwide chain of daily and evening newspapers.

Tony returned to Blackburn in the 1960s and was appointed deputy news editor in the 1970s, remaining at the Telegraph until his retirement except for a brief spell in magazine journalism.

After retiring, Tony moved back to Morecambe and enjoyed swimming and allotment gardening.

After the death of his wife Carmel in 2011, he moved to Sutton Coldfield to be with his daughter Susan.

An active member of the HMS Protector Association, for the past two years he had battled against mesothelioma – a disease he unknowingly contracted after ingesting asbestos during a refit of the ship during his time aboard.

Tony died on 7 November at Susan’s home. He is survived by her, three step-children, Kenny, Mark and Karen and eight grandchildren.