A press photographer whose career included stints on both national and regional titles has died aged 70.
Mike Cleary started out on Essex County Newspapers – which included Colchester’s Daily Gazette – before a spell doing freelance work for national and Sunday dailies.
He then moved to the South Wales Evening Post as a senior press photographer overing many major news and sporting events in South Wales.
While in Swansea in 1989 he was awarded the Heineken Rugby Photographer of the Year Award for his coverage of the sport.
Born in 1953 and the eldest of four children, Mike was interested in photography from a young age, reading two volumes of The Focal Encyclopaedia of Photography whilst still at school, the Gazette reported.
He joined Essex County Newspapers at the age of 20 in 1973 and remained with the company until 1987, covering high profile stories such as the Royal Wedding in 1981, the hi-jacking of a plane at Stansted Airport and four tours of Northern Ireland with the Army.
Mike, pictured in 1975, then freelanced for national daily newspapers, working at Downing Street and at Heathrow Airport, and for the Sunday People deputising for the picture editor before his move to Swansea.
He eventually returned to Colchester, joining the Essex Wildlife Trust in 2008 as a volunteer and working there for over 10 years.
He later joined the Copford Pits Wood Trust as a volunteer and became chairman, organising volunteer days, tree surgeon site visits, pond maintenance, and the reporting of birds nesting in bird boxes again.
Mike leaves his partner Linda Gossett and daughter Megan. His funeral was held on Friday 23 at St Michael and All Angels Church, Copford.