THE funeral has taken place in St Mary’s Church, Stogumber, of former Free Press reporter George Tuckfield, aged 79, who went on to become a newspaper editor.

More than 200 mourners attended the service for Mr Tuckfield, who was born in Stogumber and retired back to the village after a newspaper career which he decided he wanted to pursue at the age of 14.

He leaves a widow, Sue, son and daughter Sean and Tracey, and five grandchildren, three of whom are triplets.

Mr Tuckfield was a teenager when he decided he wanted to become a journalist and he attended a two-year journalism course in the then Taunton College with an ambition to write about sport.

However, he was unable to find an opening with any local newspaper and instead worked in a builder’s office and then for Somerset County Council’s weights and measures department.

His journalism break came in the early 1960s when, at the age of 19, he took a trainee reporter’s job with the Free Press in its Williton office and served a three-year apprenticeship with the paper.

Mr Tuckfield would ride around West Somerset on his bicycle to report the news and described the Free Press as the ‘Bible’ of local news and affairs.

In 1970, he moved to Maidenhead to take a district reporter’s job with the Berkshire Mercury, and then in 1976 launched the Woodley edition of the Reading Chronicle, where he became the paper’s news editor two years later.

He was appointed editor of the Bracknell News in 1981 and stayed for seven years before returning to become group editor of the Reading Chronicle, and then moved to be editor of the Henley Standard, where he worked for 18 years until retirement in September, 2008.

Mr Tuckfield was also a talented cricketer, having played in his school’s 1st XI at the age of 11 years when his teammates were aged 16.

In Berkshire, he played for North Maidenhead Cricket Club for more than 30 years, captaining the 1st XI for 12 years and being club chairman for 18 years.

When he retired aged 65 he was club president and still played about 10 games a season.