A well-known reporter who worked on a number of local newspapers, and became one of the country’s youngest editors, has died just six years into his retirement.

Brian Cummins spent most of his professional life in the London area.

After getting into the industry from school, he completed National Service and then got a job at Reuters, before working for the Rank Organisation and returning to the regional press industry.

He worked on the Middlesex County Press and then the Uxbridge Gazette, before becoming editor of the Hillingdon Mirror, aged 26.

He stayed there for 26 years, proving a success by winning awards for its design. He was later regional editor for newspapers in the London area.

Away from the editor’s chair, he was involved in training journalists and played a leading role in the National Council for the Training of Journalists' programme, continuing with that work during his retirement. Out of work, he became editor of the Hereford Twinning Association.

He and his wife Wendy made their home in Herefordshire when he retired in 1999.