A former regional press House of Commons correspondent and talented musician has died aged 59.

Roger Clift worked at titles across the south of England and Midlands and was the lobby correspondent for the short-lived Slough and Hounslow Evening Mail.

And away from the newsroom he was well-known throughout his adopted home in north Staffordshire as a keyboard player with bands Commitments Too and Soul Devotion.

Roger died on Monday at the Douglas Macmillan Hospice, in Stoke-on-Trent, having been diagnosed with lung cancer in January last year.

Born in 1949 and originally from London, Roger began his career in journalism 40 years ago with the Middlesex Chronicle after his mother wrote to the paper saying her son was “good at essays”.

He went on to become the lobby correspondent for the Evening Mail, later joining Plymouth-based titles the Sunday Independent and Evening Herald he was news editor.

He moved to Staffordshire in 1988 where he joined Northcliffe daily The Sentinel and then became a sub-editor with the Midland News Association in 2001.

Roger worked at the Shropshire Star’s head office in Telford before joining sister daily the Express and Star, becoming part of the dedicated subs team working on the revamped Stafford edition.

Sentinel assistant editor Martin Tideswell said: “Roger will be fondly remembered as a superb journalist and a very helpful, warm and funny man.”

Friend and former Stafford Express and Star colleague Phil Gillam added: “Roger was a big personality with a big heart. He could be delightfully mischievous, sometimes quite outrageous, and very, very funny.

“But behind all the fun and the jokes was a thoughtful man who cared deeply about people. We will miss him very much.”

Roger had three children with his wife Jackie – Ramona, George and James who died aged 13.

After he divorced, Roger met his new partner Sara and after her tragic death in 2003 he and his band mates raised thousands for mental health charity MIND in her memory.