The former chief executive of Home Counties Newspapers, Bill Coppen-Gardner, has died after a long illness, aged 67.

He joined the company in 1989 as managing director, was appointed to the board and went on to become chief executive.

It was in this role that he led the sale of the company to ECNG, which is now Archant.

Titles included the Ham & High, South Essex Recorders, Herts Advertiser, Comet, Herald group and the Welwyn and Hatfield Times.

His background was in the forces, where he was known as Lieutenant Colonel Charles William Estcourt Coppen-Gardner, of the Royal Hampshire Regiment and King's African Rifles, with whom he won the Military Cross for distinguished and meritorious service in battle.

He left to work for the brewers Courage before joining LBC in the early 1980s as general manager and then managing director.

Neil Goodwin, former deputy MD at HCN, and now director of new media of Archant Regional (West) paid tribute and said: "He was a strong and charismatic leader whose commanding presence guided the old HCN through an important and turbulent period of evolution within the industry."

Former HCN financial director Steve Daykin said: "I regarded Bill as the man I have admired most in my working career, who demonstrated the highest levels of personal integrity, loyalty and determination."

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