A regional journalist who went on to survive two bombings during his Fleet Street career has died aged 85.

Richard Holland worked on newspapers in Kent and Berkshire before going on to the nationals.

While a reporter in London, he was just yards away from an IRA car bomb outside the Old Bailey in March 1973.

Richard also missed being struck by a roadside bomb in Belfast while covering The Troubles, Kent Online reports.

Richard, pictured, began his career at the age of 15 as tea boy on the East Kent Mercury, in Deal.

He was promoted to cub reporter before working on the Folkestone Herald.

After his National Service in the RAF, Richard returned from Germany to a job on the Windsor and Eton Express, followed by a move to the Ilford Pictorial.

Richard returned to Folkestone, where he became a stringer for the nationals in the 1960s, before moving on to the Press Association and then The Times in 1967.

There, he rose to become chief sub-editor between 1973 and 1977, when he moved to the Isle of Man and founded international finance magazine Offshore Investments.

Richard was married to Sheila Coates, a BBC secretary who went on to become a bestselling romantic novelist, between 1959 and her death in 2000.

He was married to Penelope Old, his second wife, between 2003 and their divorce in 2010.

Richard is survived by his partner Michele, children Michael, Sarah, Jane, David and Charlotte, grandchildren Kate, Becki, Dylan, Morris and Indigo, and his great-grandson Ciaran.

His funeral service will be held at St. Paul’s RC Church, in Dover, at 11am on Tuesday 8 March.