Former Coventry Evening Telegraph reporter Bill Randle has died aged 97.

Bill worked for 50 years in the newspaper industry in Nuneaton, initially joining the old Nuneaton Chronicle before moving on to the now-defunct Nuneaton Observer.

After joining the Evening Telegraph in 1950, Bill became the paper's chief reporter in Nuneaton and was also its senior crime, court and council reporter in the town before retiring in December 1972.

Paying tribute to Bill, Evening Telegraph journalist Steve Evans said: "I joined the Nuneaton staff a couple of weeks after Bill retired. He was a real gentleman, a member of the 'old school' of journalists who used to spend hours sitting in the council chamber and the courtroom, reporting on every debate and every case.

"He smoked a pipe and had a pencil-thin moustache and was always superbly dressed.

"Bill was not a journalist interested in scoops, scandals or gossip. He faithfully chronicled everyday life Nuneaton for half a century.

"He had immaculate shorthand and no case escaped him. Even someone riding a pushbike with lights on during the wartime blackouts who were fined a couple of quid used to get their cases reported in the paper.

"Even after he retired, he still worked for the Evening Telegraph as a freelance providing court copy. He was very highly regarded and served for many years in his retirement as the foreman of the jury at inquests in the town."