Former Sleaford Standard editor and Lincolnshire Echo journalist Ken Ewen has died, aged 90.

He had worked as a reporter on the Echo in the 1950s before joining the weekly Sleaford Standard.

He returned to the Echo in the 1970s as a sub-editor.

Ken was also a well-known cyclist and was a life president of Sleaford Wheelers cycling club, which he helped to set up more than 50 years ago.

His son Max, a photographer at the Leicester Mercury, said that among his father’s proudest achievements was cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats to celebrate his 70th birthday.

He said: “My father loved Lincolnshire, spent his life cycling the quiet lanes of the county which were less busy and safer to ride on than I suppose they are now.”

He said his father loved “sleepy Sleaford” and escaping with his second wife Mary (73) to their country cottage.

He said: “It was a beautiful, tiny cottage at Somersby, the village in the Lincolnshire Wolds where the great poet Tennyson lived, which they used to rent for ten shillings a week.

“He rode there on his bike and she would take the car with the weekend’s supplies of food.”

Ken was originally from Boston, where his father was a printer on a local paper. He joined the RAF at the start of the Second World War, training as an aircraft technician at Sutton Bridge.

He is survived by his wife Mary, son Max, daughter Nadya and grandchildren Sally, Sarah and Gary.

---

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or e-mail [email protected]