Alastair Warren, a former editor of The Herald in Glasgow, has died. He was 83.

He had edited the title from 1965 to 1974, taking up the post following a financial tussle between Lord Thomson and Sir Hugh (later Lord) Fraser, over the ownership of the paper, with the latter's Scottish and Universal Investments finally triumphing.

He was originally invited to join the Glasgow Herald, as it was known then, in 1954 as a sub-editor after writing several letters to the newspaper's opinion page.

He also served as the paper's leader writer, features editor, commercial editor and city editor in London before taking the helm.

Despite old Army protocols, he was also the first Herald editor to let himself be addressed by first name by his staff, a familiarity that would have been unthinkable in the days of predecessors James Holburn and Sir William Robieson.

Perhaps the outstanding moment of his editorship was the first moon landing, and journalists on duty in the small hours of July 21, 1969, were invited into the editor's office to view the event on television.

"Man lands on the Moon" said Monday's paper, the front page also noting the more down-to-earth fact of "600 arrests in first three days of fair".

In July 1974, Alastair Warren relinquished the editorship of The Herald and became south of Scotland regional editor for Scottish and Universal Newspapers.

Two years later he was appointed editor of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and remained there until retiring in 1986.

He suffered a stroke in 1991 while out walking with his wife but recovered and later had three volumes of poems published.

He is survived by his wife Ann, sons Michael and David, five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.