Maurice ‘Rom’ Romilly, a former Conservative Party chief press officer who later protested against genetically-modified crops in Fife, has died at the age of 85.
Mr Romilly, an only child, was born in Peckham, London, in 1920.
He moved to Southend when he was 18 to join the Southend Times as a reporter.
He joined the RAF at the outbreak of the Second World War and was posted to South Africa, where he was part of the ground crew before becoming a trainee pilot.
After demob he rejoined the Southend Times, eventually becoming editor. He then worked for a number of east London papers before arriving on Fleet Street in the early 1950s.
For the next quarter of a century he worked in the House of Commons as a Parliamentary reporter for the Press Association and the Daily Telegraph and, latterly, as political correspondent for the London Daily News.
In 1980, he joined the Conservatives as a press officer, later becoming chief press officer for the party at Westminster.
He survived the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984 and received a personal letter of thanks from then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his help in the aftermath of the bombing.
Mr Romilly retired in 1987 and was awarded an MBE for his services to journalism. He married his wife Annie, known as Nancy, in 1947. After her death in 1996 he moved to Scotland to be nearer relatives.
He became an active member of St Andrew’s Church in Dundee, Tayside Re-users and Greenpeace.
In 2002, he was one of a number of Newport residents to protest against the use of genetically-modified crops at Wester Friarton Farm.
Mr Romilly is survived by his children Peter and Patricia.