A former photographer who worked at a regional daily for 47 years has died at the age of 84.

Bill Payne worked for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle for his whole career, apart from two years of National Service with the RAF, after joining the title when he was just 14-years-old in 1942.

He started out as a messenger for the title then moved to the dark room and later became a photographer, remaining in the role until his retirement in 1991.

Bill died in hospital on 9 August and his wife of 61 years, Freda, has paid tribute to him.

Bill Payne is pictured with his scrapbook.

She told the Chronicle: “He was a real gentleman and a very family-orientated man who loved spending time with his family. He loved being surrounded by his family and they were with him during his last eight weeks in hospital.

“He photographed sport and royalty, anything that was needed. He always went to cover the football, it was either Newcastle or Sunderland.

“He really enjoyed photographing the football and was very interested in sport himself. When he was younger he was in the sports team when he was in the RAF. He used to win all the Chronicle races as well, he was a good runner.

“He was very proud of the work he did. It was such a variety of work, I think that is what he enjoyed. We had quite a lot of family pictures, he really enjoyed it.”

During his time at the paper, Bill won a photography prize in 1968 and also had some of his pictures selected as part of the British Press Picture of the Year awards, while some of his images were chosen for the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s 150 best news pictures of the year.

He leaves Freda, children Lesley and David and his four grandchildren Selina, Rebecca, Ashleigh and Mark.