A journalist who went from daily newspaper wire room worker to a member of its board has died aged 95.

Tributes have been paid to Hugh Currie, who spent more than 40 years with the Daily Record – and 60 years in total in journalism.

After working as a reporter and on newsdesk at the Record, Hugh’s “relentless drive” saw him eventually become editorial manager at the Glasgow-based paper.

According to an obituary in The Scotsman, “even Robert Maxwell was known to defer to Hugh’s judgement” in the boardroom.

Glasgow-born Hugh left school at 14 to work in a fruit and vegetable wholesalers, before serving in India, and on D-Day, in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Returning to Glasgow after the war, he began Working in the wire room in the Record’s then-office, in Hope Street, but was quickly recruited as a journalist after supplying many leads to reporters working there.

Hugh, pictured, began as a general news reporter, and was responsible for the ‘Pat Roller’, column, a daily digest of the smaller news stories gleaned from around Glasgow.

He began to specialise in crime reporting, and later became chief crime reporter before graduating to the news desk and, later, the executive floor.

Hugh officially retired at 65, but later joined the Scottish Sun and shortlived title the Sunday Scot, before joining First Press Publishing.

First Press was later purchased by the Daily Record and Sunday Mail group.

Malcolm Speed, former editorial director of the 
Daily Record and Sunday Mail, said, in tribute to Hugh: “He was never a man to be underestimated either on the road as a reporter or later as a senior executive who really had mega power in shaping editorial decisions.

“If Hugh Currie was on board it was more than half the battle. He was a founder member and active in the Association of Mirror Pensioners. His sudden death has come as a shock to those who remember him.

“The editorial job sometimes called for unpleasant decisions which he always tried to make palatable. He was always a formidable opponent with an exemplary reputation recognised by journalists across many decades.”

Hugh married Phyllis Fox in 1959.

She survives him, along with sons Max and Peter, and grandchildren Aimée, Poppy, Findlay, Rory, Théo and Fergus.