The wartime diaries of a former sports editor for the Exeter Express & Echo have been discovered after lying hidden for 50 years.

Eric Hoare's diaries – which were written while he served in Gibraltar with the Devonshire Regiment from 1940 to 1942 – were found in a trunk by his son Philip, also a former Express & Echo reporter.

Philip is now planning to create books out of the diaries which reveal Eric's experiences of helping to keep the Straits clear of enemy shipping and also of his service in East Africa.

Eric joined the paper before the war as a sports reporter and sports editor whilst also writing about cricket under the pen name of Willow.

His older brother, Cecil 'Bob' Hoare, became editor of the Express & Echo and remained in charge producing wartime issues of the paper whilst Eric was in Gibraltar.

After his stint in East Africa, Eric returned to his job as sports editor and cricket writer and had completed 50 years of service with the Express & Echo when he retired in 1976.

Sadly, the following year he fell ill with leukaemia and died at the age of 66.

One of Eric's diary entries described the first enemy air attack on Gibraltar on July 5, 1940.

He wrote: "I was out and about at 6am at the sound of anti-aircraft fire and saw dark puffs of smoke still hovering in the sky where shells had burst behind the raider.

"On another occasion, while I was on night duty, I heard aircraft overhead at 1.45am and saw a dozen searchlights turned skywards, albeit they failed to pick up any of the planes. At 6am, anti-aircraft guns were in action against a plane which made a dive bombing attack before disappearing into cloud. All bombs were reported to have dropped into the sea. I heard later that the bombs fell near our warships Hood and Resolution."