A rare ’emergency’ copy of the West Briton and Royal Cornwall Gazette, discovered by a reader, has been filed at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.

The edition’s date is July 2 1959, and was an emergency edition with no photographs and short text.

The publishers believe there could have been a printers’ strike on when it was published.

The paper was discovered in the belongings of Truro man Wilfred Tynack’s late aunt, and he took it first to the West Briton offices before going on to the museum.

The West Briton was founded in 1810, in opposition to Cornwall’s first newspaper, The Royal Cornwall Gazette.

The first edition was published in Truro, with all the type set by hand and copies printed on a hand press.

The six-and-a-half pence cost gave readers four broadsheet pages.

In the 1970s The West Briton became part of the Northcliffe Newspapers Group, which already owned the Cornish Guardian and The Cornishman.

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