A special gathering has been held for a long-serving and respected Scottish journalist who retired after more than 55 years in the industry.

Ted Kidd started out as a reporter in 1956 with newspaper publisher DC Thomson.

He announced his retirement in July and this month a special gathering was held at Aberdeen Town House, the same place he started his reporting career.

He started there after completing National Service with the RAF and one of his first tasks was reporting Aberdeen Town Council meetings.

He started his career on the Sunday Mail in 1963 then moved to the Daily Record, where he remained as Aberdeen staff until taking redundancy in 1988.

Since retiring he has reported on local authority issues for various media, including radio, TV and specialist publications.

During a lengthy career he covered the city’s typhoid outbreak in 1964; the Fraserburgh lifeboat tragedy in 1971 which saw five crew die when it capsized, and the murder of Maxwell Garvie, a farmer who was shot dead in his bed in 1965.

He also covered every day of the inquiry into the North sea oil rig disaster.

At a reception held on Friday tributes were paid by Aberdeen’s Lord Provost Peter Stephen and Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser of the National Union of Journalists.

Ted has been a long-serving welfare officer for the union and a major fundraiser over the years for the NUJ Extra charity.

Said NUJ Grampian branch chair, Jean McLeish: “It was an excellent turnout of former colleagues and friends from all over Scotland, which underlines the huge respect everyone has for Ted Kidd.

“Throughout his long career he has been the model professional and has always done his job with the upmost integrity and thoroughness.”