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Former journalist and lay preacher dies aged 78

A former regional press journalist who combined a career in newspapers with Methodist lay preaching has died aged 78.

Dennis Tomlinson helped train hundreds of reporters during his career with Archant where he was training officer for 17 years.

Starting out as a trainee reporter with the Maidenhead Advertiser in 1947, Dennis did two years’ National Service as a shorthand-typist at Coastal Command headquarters.

He subsequently joined Farmers Weekly and then moved to Norfolk to become news editor of Farming World, in those days a weekly title published by Archant’s predecessor company Eastern Counties Newspapers.

When the title ceased publication in 1970, he became a production journalist on the Norwich Evening News, until appointed as the company’s training officer in 1976.

In his 17 years in the role, he arranged about 1,000 work placements for school and college students as well as overseeing journalism training schemes.

Dennis also wrote a weekly religious affairs column in the Evening News, Cross Talk, for 15 years without missing a single issue until finally retiring in 1999.

He became an accredited lay preacher in 1958, having started preaching in village chapels in his native Berkshire at the age of 18, and took around 30 services a year in the Norwich district.

Dennis leaves a widow, Grace, two sons, Desmond and Graham, and two grandchildren, Lee and Amy.