NICK Smith, who founded the Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette in 1975, has died.
Nick moved to the South Hams in February 1975 to establish the paper from a little office by the river Erme in Ivybridge, conveniently close to the King’s Arms – now The Exchange – where he played darts and euchre.
He loved his time in south Devon and became a familiar figure around the area with his notebook and beloved Rollei camera. He lived in Ermington and was a regular at the Crooked Spire.
Nick was born, the third of four children, in Market Drayton, Shropshire, to South Walian parents. He was always very proud of his Welsh heritage and considered himself a Welshman.
He went to Market Drayton Grammar School, but had a rebellious streak and was not a keen scholar. He always wanted to be a journalist and served his apprenticeship straight from school, first on the local paper and then on the Stockport Express.
He enjoyed meeting the characters of Stockport, often recalling one, an old lady, who on her 90th birthday party said: ‘It were grand – we didn’t stop dancing except to be sick.’
He moved from Devon to Southampton in 1978 and from there to Fareham and Hatfield, where his elder daughter Kate was born in 1981. This was followed by a move to Worcester as a sub-
editor and was where his second daughter, Maddy, was born.
From Worcester he moved to Oswestry and worked on the Oswestry Advertiser, the Birmingham Post and the Wolverhampton Express and Star.
He always had an adventurous spirit, driving charity lorry runs to Romania and crewing a sailing ship to Russia.
In 1993 he had a stroke and did not work regularly again, although he still enjoyed travelling, often with his daughters, from horse-drawn caravanning in Ireland to carousing in Crete.
He always kept his spirit and sense of humour and enjoyed a joke and an argument – often at the same time.
He is survived, and much missed, by his daughters, his sister Miriam and brother Peter.
The funeral will be held at 2.30pm on Monday, November 2, at Wrexham Crematorium.