Former Kidderminster Shuttle editor Ted Millward has died – four days after his wife, Hilda, died from a heart attack.

Fred, who was 81, joined the newspaper in 1942, and later became sports editor, chief reporter, news editor.

He was appointed editor in 1970, becoming only the sixth man in the paper’s then 100-year history to take on the job.

He worked for the paper for more than 40 years.

After retirement from the Shuttle during the 1980s, he was a sub-editor for a short spell on the Worcester Evening News before moving to Kent to be nearer his three daughters, Carol, Jill and Philippa.

Current Shuttle editor Clive Joyce said: “Ted was a real gentleman and someone who was very kind and supportive to me, personally, when I came to Kidderminster to take up my first editor’s post in 1993.

“Until his health began to falter, he always came to the office to collect the Shuttle on a Thursday morning and we would chat about newspapers and how they had changed from his days as an editor.”