Former regional newspaper journalist June Lander has died after a long illness. She was 73.

During a long journalism career she had worked for the Derby Evening Telegraph and the Western Morning News, and began her career at the Bath Chronicle.

During her time in Derby she met her future husband, Hugh Lander, and they were married for 47 years.

The couple also spent time living in London, where June worked for the Photo Feature Agency in Garrick Street, before making their home in Cornwall.

For 12 years she was county secretary of the Cornwall Federation of Women’s Institutes and that led to her being signed up as a staff columnist for the Western Morning News.

On leaving the WMN she became a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers as well as doing public relations work.

She also wrote a book entitled Cornish Eccentrics and more recently How Do You Say Places in Cornwall?