Former Bolton Evening News chairman Marcus Tillotson has died aged 89.

He was the grandson of William F Tillotson, who founded the BEN in 1867, and began work at Tillotsons Newspapers Ltd in 1937, training in all departments except editorial to learn the business from the bottom up.

After serving in the Second World War he became a director of the parent company which had six subsidiaries, and he succeeded his father, Fred L Tillotson, as chairman of the newspaper company in 1956.

He was also president of the Newspaper Society in 1966, and he retired in 1971 when Tillotsons Ltd was bought by the St Regis Paper Company of New York.