One of the first women to work as a general reporter for The Times in the modern era – and the first to become home news editor – has died. Rita Marshall was aged 73 and had been living at Pickering House, the journalists’ care home in Dorking.

When she joined The Times in 1967, women, even if they had journalistic ambitions, were still all too likely to be found in secretarial roles, from which it might take some time to get a foot on the journalistic ladder.

Marshall was born in south London in 1934 and was educated at Greycoat School, London, and City of London College, Moorgate, where she took the Royal Society of Arts’ diploma in shorthand and typing.