Former Derby Evening Telegraph and Liverpool Post & Echo journalist Alan Gilbert has died.

The 97-year-old had suffered a stroke.

Alan worked at the Evening Telegraph in the 1940s and 1950s as the paper’s chief sub-editor.

He then moved to the Liverpool Daily Post to work in a similar role before being appointed assistant editor at the Liverpool Echo.

When he retired, he moved to Thurlestone in Devon with his wife, Doris, who died in August 1998. They had no children.

Alan co-authored a novel with David Sinclair in 1944. The thriller, The Man From Nowhere, published by Gifford, was reported as “a success” in the Evening Telegraph.

He was also involved with raising money for charity with Derby Round Table and at one time was its chairman.