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Funeral held for former sports editor

Friends and colleagues have said a final farewell to former Essex Chronicle sports editor Bernard Webber, who has died aged 77.

A funeral for the journalist, who was known as ‘Mr Colchester United’, was held at Colchester Crematorium on Friday.

He had been ill for some time, and died of kidney failure earlier this month, just five days after his book on the history of Colchester Football Club was published.

The service took the form of a celebration of Bernard’s life, led with readings by Adrian Pasotti, the head healer at Fennings Chase Spiritualist Church in Colchester where Bernard worshipped.

Instead of hymns his favourite pieces of classical music – Chopin’s Waltz in A Flat Major and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini – were played.

Bernard was one of the most respected and well-known sports journalists in Essex, and had worked for the Essex County Telegraph, the Worcester Evening News, the Essex Chronicle, the Chelmsford Evening Herald, and the Colchester Express among others.

A minor stroke signalled the end of his career on the Evening Herald in the early 1980s but on his recovery he began freelancing.

Interviewed in 1996, Bernard told the Essex Chronicle: “Sports journalism is the greatest profession that you can be involved in as far as I’m concerned.

“I want to carry on as long as I feel like it, in fact, as long as I can hold a pen in my hand!”

He leaves Jean, his wife of 54 years, a daughter Tracy, and grandchildren Rebecca and Madeline.

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