Long-serving journalist and former Liverpool Daily Post writer Ivor Wynne Jones has died after a short illness, aged 80.

He also worked for the Daily Post Wales as a district reporter, chief Welsh affairs correspondent, feature writer and Day to Day in Wales columnist.

In more recent years he wrote the weekly column titled “Forthright and Fearless”, which described his style throughout his lengthy career.

Both as a news reporter and columnist Ivor wrote authoritatively and often provocatively, and he took great delight in exposing the failings of those in authority and deflating large egos, as well as fighting the cause of the underdog against the establishment and exposing examples of silly political correctness.

He was also a prolific author, being responsible for numerous books, most of which were on the broad topic of Welsh history.

His personal library at his home in Penrhyn Bay was vast, but his ability to recall details of incidents and events without the need to refer to his immaculately filed archives was equally phenomenal.

Ivor was born in Allerton, Liverpool, in 1927, and joined the BBC’s General Overseas Service during the war, before being posted to the Levant as a paratrooper in 1946.

To help him do so he drew on his vast knowledge of local people and issues, and of political machinations at local and national level.

On returning home after the War he joined the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, becoming editor in 1953, and after a spell with the North Wales Pioneer moved to the Daily Post in 1955.

During the next 37 years he travelled widely, reporting from such places as Brussels, Strasbourg, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Washington, Dallas, Cairo, Hong Kong and the Falkland Islands.

He also remained a frequent visitor to the Middle East and in 1990 went out to the Gulf War as the Daily Post’s last chief Welsh correspondent. In 1998 he was a guest at the golden jubilee celebrations of Cyprus broadcasting.

Daily Post editor Rob Irvine, said: “Ivor wrote without fear or favour. No exalted position in politics or society rendered its holder safe unless Ivor felt they were genuinely up to the tasks they had been entrusted with.

“His uncompromising style had a rock-solid foundation – a seemingly bottomless depth of knowledge of affairs local, national and international that stretched from the dawn of civilizations to the present day’s headlines.”