A former boss of Trinity Newspapers in Liverpool who played a major role in reshaping the company has died at the age of 84.

Hugh Clarke joined the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo in 1963, becoming company secretary and the director who led many of the changes at the group from the 1970s.

Former chairman of the Daily Post and Echo, David Snedden, said: “Hugh was a man of total integrity, whose attention to detail and matters of corporate governance could stand as an example to all business leaders.

“This was all accompanied by a dry sense of humour, which helped lighten many an otherwise solemn meeting. It was a privilege to have worked with him.”

Mr Clarke came from Peterborough and took a degree in law at Brasenose College, Oxford, before following a business career.

Trinity Newspapers became Trinity Mirror in the mid-1990s after buying Thomson Regional Newspapers and merging with the Mirror Group.