A former regional press journalist who had two books published last year is appealing for information about a paper’s Second World War correspondent to help him write his third.

Mark Rowe, left, is calling for memories and photos of former Yorkshire Post war correspondent Joe Illingworth who reported from the frontline of the conflict but died in 1976.

His first book, published last summer told the story of how Britain prepared for a possible German invasion during the war and his second told the story of the 1945 unofficial Ashes series between England and an Australian Services team.

Mark started his journalism career on the Wiltshire Times and worked on a number of regional papers, including Carlisle’s News & Star and The News, Portsmouth, before going to work at Professional Security Magazine in 1999, where he remains as editor.

He discovered Joe’s role as a war reporter when reading front-page despatches from him at a library in Leeds and he holidayed in Normandy last year to try to walk in some of his footsteps.

Said Mark: “An early despatch of his soon after he landed on the Normandy beaches, telling of the simple lives of the soldiers, with reminders of death all round, was the most moving report I have ever read.

“He was careful to talk to men of all ranks from the Post’s circulation area and tell their stories.

“And yet, presumably because he did not work for a Fleet Street paper or the BBC, his name is nowhere near as famous as other admittedly fine warcos such as Chester Wilmot and Richard Dimbleby.”

After the war ended, Joe remained at the Post and became London editor for the paper.

Mark added: “From reading his postwar column in the Post, he appeared to have the coolest job of all time, meeting and hearing anyone who was anyone in London in the 1950s and 60s.

“There were tears in my eyes in the library when I read his obituary – he died in 1976 aged 73 – because I had set my heart on meeting him.”

Anyone with memories of Joe or Post photographer Herbert Dewhirst, who took pictures in the Normandy campaign, is asked to email Mark at [email protected].