The former managing director of what was once Britain’s biggest regional newspaper publisher has died aged 77.

Roger Nicholson worked for decades in the newspaper industry both at home and also in Africa.

He was born in Dundee and after studying at universities in St Andrews and America, he moved to the then Rhodesia where he had done two years of National Service with the RAF.

He became managing director of the then Thomson Regional Newspapers at a time when it was the biggest newspaper publisher in the UK.

Among the titles it owned were The Scotsman, the Belfast Telegraph, the Western Mail, The Press and Journal, Aberdeen and The Journal and Evening Chronicle, Newcastle.

Mr Nicholson stood down in 1988 and within seven years the company had been broken up, with the English and Welsh titles bought by what is now Trinity Mirror and the Scottish and Northern Irish titles sold to a variety of owners.

During his spell working in Africa, Mr Nicholson was a financial editor with the Rhodesia Herald and later an MP for the United Federal Party.

In 1970 he came back to the UK and joined TRN working for their titles in Cardiff, London and Aberdeen.

In his later career he was European director of Ingersoll Publications and also ran media consultancy firm Strath News Ltd.

He had lived in Crieff, near Perth, for the past ten years with his second wife Maureen.

Alan Scott, MD of Aberdeen Journals, told former TRN title the Press and Journal: “As commercial director one of his many initiatives was the introduction of the Press and Journal trip to Houston each year to attend the OTC oil show which has been a continued success since it was first launched in 1973.

“I also knew him as a personal friend since the day he was responsible for my coming to Aberdeen Journals as managing director.

“For all who knew him and for the newspaper industry, he will be a huge loss. He was a fine executive in the best tradition of the newspaper industry. Our sympathies are with the family at this time.”

He is survived by his wife Maureen, two children Bruce and Jane and two grandchildren.