A former regional daily features editor who was also one of its last London editors has died after a battle with lung cancer.

Tony Austin worked for the now-defunct Liverpool Daily Post in the days when it had several reporters based at its Fleet Street office, Mersey House.

After he retired, Tony moved to the village Hextable, Kent, where his funeral service took place this week.

Larry Neild, who worked with Tony at the Post before leaving in 2007, described Austin as a “gentleman journalist” from a time when the paper was a player on the national stage.

He said:  “Tony was an absolute gentleman, very flamboyant and well suited to the job of London editor. I think he may even have been the last person to hold the post.

“He was in effect our Liverpool consul general in London, an ambassador who flew the flag for the city in the capital.

“At the time the Post was a significant newspaper and very much on the national stage, and he was suited to the role because of his personality and his style of engaging with people. “

“He was a gentleman journalist who we all looked up to.”