Bob Sands, the last Northern Editor of the Daily Mirror in Manchester before editorial production of the newspaper was moved to London, has died.

Bob, who spent most of his working life at Thomson House, Manchester, now the Printworks entertainment complex, having previously been deputy chief sub-editor of the Evening Chronicle, Manchester, was 72.

He joined the Daily Mirror when the Evening Chronicle was merged with the Manchester Evening News in July, 1963.

He had been hoping to join former Evening Chronicle colleagues on July 26 when they hold a reunion luncheon marking the 40th anniversary of the closure of the Evening Chronicle.

Bob, who lived in Stockport, is survived by his widow, a daughter and two sons, one of whom, David, followed in his father's footsteps and is a journalist with EuroProperty, a member of the Estates Gazette Group.

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