A weekly newspaper reporter who ran the Ministry of Defence’s newsdesk during the Falklands War has returned to the office where he began his career six decades ago.

Colonel Mike Peters started his career on the Brecon and Radnor Express in 1956, and went on to become Commanding Officer of the British Army’s media operations.

After leaving the Express for the Exeter Echo & Express, a scoop about an underground nuclear bunker led to Mike being invited to join the volunteer Royal Observer Corps, which in turn led to his military career.

In a visit to the office of the Express recently, 77-year-old Mike recalled beginning his career there straight from school.

Mike Peters at the Express office

He told news editor Twm Owen: “I wanted to go into the Royal Navy, my great uncle had been in the Battle of Jutland, but I couldn’t pass my maths exam.

“I had attempted to pass the maths exam in November when I got a call from the headmaster and he said ‘you’ve got English literature and language, would you like to work at a newspaper?’ I said I don’t know but I then came to meet the editor John F Morgan.”

Mike’s work there included film reviews and a fishing column, the latter due to his father’s fine reputation as an angler.

Of his time doing media for the Armed Forces, he added: “I worked with [Margaret Thatcher’s press officer Bernard Ingham and every week we had to meet and tell Bernard what was likely to happen in our ministries as if anything was likely to go wrong he wanted to know about it.

“My main contact with Michael Heseltine was when he was the secretary of defence and I was on the press desk.

“I remember him going to Greenham Common [an RAF base where women’s peace camps were held in the 1980s were held] and I told him not to wear a combat jacket, and not to be confrontational. The ladies there were very well organised.”