Oldham Evening Chronicle stalwart Gordon Maxwell has put the final words to a career that’s spanned 54 years.

He is the paper’s former editor and has now been revealed as the man behind John Wilkes’ popular As I was Saying column – a humourous look at life which began in 1966.

Readers were never told who the mysterious John Wilkes was, and the picture byline was a photo of the back of his head.

When Mr Maxwell retired as editor in 1991, after nine years at the helm, the fascinating John Wilkes story went on and on – until this week when the final edition unmasked Mr Maxwell as the author.

The Chronicle ran through his career in a tribute article which told how he started at the newspaper aged 16, in 1946, as a junior reporter.

Spells at the Northern Echo and the Huddersfield Examiner were followed by a return to the Chronicle in 1954.

Mr Maxwell moved up the ladder and was promoted to chief sub-editor in 1959 and deputy editor in 1962, serving as the latter for 20 years.

He said: “It is probably the longest stint anyone has had as deputy editor at a newspaper in this country, but I enjoyed working under the editor of the day, Kenneth Hirst. He gave me a lot of freedom and I became heavily involved in the production of the paper.”

Night shifts at the national newspapers in Manchester gave him a taste of working at larger publications, but he stayed loyal to Oldham and to the Chronicle.

In 1970, he was appointed to the board of Hirst, Kidd and Rennie Ltd, the company which publishes the Chronicle, and became the paper’s editor in 1982.

On retirement he continued to write holiday features from home and abroad and also explored the highways and byways to compile two booklets: Lunch in the Country and a booklet called Let’s Go for a Drive.

After a drink-driving conviction banned him from the roads for a year in 1995 a wag at the office had put up a notice suggesting a series called Walking in the Country!

Now 71, he intends to continue travelling as much as possible during retirement and is planning to take a Caribbean cruise next year.

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