Scores of colleagues and friends turned out to see “Mr Great Yarmouth”, David Wakefield, retire from the Eastern Daily Press after 43 years in local newspapers.

David was the EDP’s motoring correspondent but worked for its sister paper, the Yarmouth Mercury, for 30 years.

He joined what was then Eastern Counties Newspapers on March 4, 1963, and went to the Yarmouth Mercury office in what was supposed to be a temporary move.

He became assistant editor and eventually moved to the What’s On section of the EDP in 1993 before becoming production sub-editor for the Saturday magazine and Sunday section of the paper.

At his presentation, editor Peter Franzen paid tribute to a “constant force” in the dramatically changing world of journalism.

David, (66), who received good wishes from Saturday magazine columnist Trisha Goddard, among others, told his Archant Norfolk colleagues: “It has been a privilege to work with so many wormy characters as there are in this office,” referring to an office wag’s comment that journalists who stay in a job for more than 18 months are deadwood.