A former deputy editor and journalism trainer with an “encyclopedic knowledge” has died aged 93.

Tributes have been paid to Martin Wallace, who served as second in command at the Belfast Telegraph and later went on to work in broadcasting.

He held senior roles at the BBC including head of news and current affairs, as well as head of parliamentary broadcasting.

Martin, pictured, also taught journalism at the University of Ulster, in Coleraine, during his career.

His daughter Ruth, a former print journalist and now freelance TV producer, told the Bel Tel: “My Dad was a lovely gentle man with an encyclopedic knowledge of so many things who passed on many of his passions to his children.”

She added: “Current affairs was his true passion and even in his final years the sound of rolling news on the BBC and on Sky was a great comfort to him.”

Belfast-born Martin graduated from the city’s Queen’s University with a degree in geography before moving to study for a year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

In 1957 he joined an advertising agency in Montreal, Canada, where he met fellow Queen’s graduate and his future wife Valerie Webb,

The couple returned to Northern Ireland where Martin joined the Bel Tel and rose through the ranks under editor-in-chief John E. Sayers.

He left in 1969 for a career in radio, working with RTE and later with the BBC in Belfast.

In 1974 he moved with his family to London to work with the BBC, spending 12 years there.

Martin and Valerie returned to Northern Ireland where he taught at the University of Ulster before entering full retirement.

In his latter years, he had lived with Alzheimer’s Disease.