An editor who ran a weekly newspaper for a decade has died aged 92.

Tributes have been paid to Les Emes, who ran the Stratford Herald for 10 years.

Birmingham-born Les, pictured, had begun his journalism career in Australia after emigrating in the 1950s.

He joined the Herald after returning to England in the 1970s, working his way up from reporter to the editor’s chair.

While running the Warwickshire paper, Les worked with his youngest daughter Adrianne when she followed in her father’s footsteps as a reporter.

Adrianne, who later became the Herald’s news editor, told the paper: “There was no other job in his mind than being a journalist.”

Les had begun his journalism career in Brisbane and edited Queensland Master Builder magazine before leaving Austrlia with his first wife Barbara and their children Lorraine, Terry and Adrianne.

After becoming a reporter on the Herald, Les served as deputy editor to Harry Pigott-Smith and was later editor himself.

In an obituary, current Herald editor Andy Veale wrote: “During one of his visits to Birmingham, on 21 November 1974, he had taken Adrianne to watch Swan Lake.

“He initially parked by a pub called the Mulberry Bush, but then moved the car at the last minute. A couple of hours later, the pub was one of those destroyed in the Birmingham pub bombings.

“Les never forgot the sound of the bombs going off and took a keen interest in the subsequent trial of the Birmingham Six.

“He maintained from the outset the wrong people had been arrested and was vindicated in 1991 when they were released.”

After Barbara left England to return to Australia in 1976, Les married his second wife Janette in the early 1980s.

He was later widowed and had lived in care homes in recent years.

Les is survived by his three children and nine grandchildren.

His funeral will take place at 2.30pm on Thursday 9 February, at Oakley Wood Crematorium, in Leamington Spa.