Bob Sands, who was the last Northern editor of the Daily Mirror in Manchester before editorial production was moved to London, has died, aged 72.
Some of his early years in journalism were spent on the Ashton-under-Lyme Reporter, where he worked with a young Harold Evans.
Most of Sands’ working life was spent at Thomson House, where he moved after working as deputy chief sub-editor of the Evening Chronicle, Manchester.
He joined the Daily Mirror when the Evening Chronicle was merged with the Manchester Evening News in 1963.
He had been hoping to join former Evening Chronicle colleagues on 26 July when they hold a reunion luncheon marking the 40th anniversary of the closure of the paper.
Sands is survived by his widow, a daughter and two sons, one of whom, David, followed in his father’s footsteps and is a journalist with EuroProperty, a member of the Estates Gazette Group.
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