Gilbert Johnson

Born on May 25, 1930, in Mexborough, his education included five years at De La Salle College in Sheffield.

On returning from National Service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Kenya it was expected he would resume his studies for the priesthood.

“But he told the priest he had decided mortal sin was much better, so he became a newspaperman,” said Susan Last, one of Gilbert’s daughters.

He joined the South Yorkshire Times in his hometown and in 1955 moved to the Hull Daily Mail.

Within two years he was working for the nationals, covering the Yorkshire area for the Daily Herald, then the Daily Sketch and then the Express, where in 1964 he earned £32 per week.

He was a staff reporter when Rupert Murdoch changed the face of the industry by re-launching the Sun and he also worked on the News Of The World.

A book compiled by members of his family and presented to Gilbert in 2006 charted some of his career highlights.

There are by-lines with his reports on the John Poulson scandal in 1972, an undated photograph of the reporter with Harold Macmillan, reports from three weeks Gilbert spent on board a Hull trawler during the Cod Wars and coverage of the mining disaster in 1973 that claimed seven lives at Lofthouse Colliery near Wakefield.

He was the first reporter to knock on the door of Viv Nicholson, who in 1961 won more than £150,000 on the football pools and famously declared she would “spend, spend, spend”.

He was at the heart of the newspaper coverage of the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, and was one of the first to coin the chilling “Yorkshire Ripper” identity.

In 1973 Gilbert Johnson wrote a front page exclusive for the Sun in which he revealed Captain Mark Phillips’s love for Princess Anne. He died the day before the wedding of their daughter, Zara.

“Rupert Murdoch never increased his reporters’ pay by much but he did provide other benefits,” said Shirley, who married Gilbert in 1956.

“He came up with the idea of paying wives to answer the phone.”

Apart from a few years in Leeds, Gilbert and Shirley lived in Kirk Ella, West Hull, raising four children who in turn delivered four grandchildren.

On leaving the Sun in the late 1970s Gilbert worked as a freelance journalist, covering such major news stories as the Lockington train disaster. He also reported on Hull City fixtures from the Press box at Boothferry Park and would usually arrive at the ground with three versions of his report already drafted – one each for a win, draw and defeat.

On one occasion he accepted a challenge from a drinking companion to work the name of a well known Hull pub into a match report.

It was too easy: “Hull City’s bonny boat foundered on the rocks of the Blackburn Rovers defence...”

One of his biggest passions was boxing. For many years he wrote a column, Straight Left, for the Hull Daily Mail’s Sports Mail publication. On one occasion he met the legendary American boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and was lost for words, but not for long.

Gilbert was also a keen racegoer, never missing a meeting at York. The book of his life includes one of his poems about racing on the Knavesmire.

A birthday surprise when he turned 80 in May 2010 was to arrive at Beverley Racecourse to find the 3.10 race named “The Gilbert Johnson 80 Not Out Handicap”.

His daughter Susan also recalls a football match in Hull in which George Best played for Northern Ireland against Spain: “The teachers were going round the ground picking up kids who had taken the day off school, but I was in the Press box with Pop so they never found me.

“It was very exciting growing up with him in the house. Every day there was a new story.”

Gilbert Johnson is survived by his wife Shirley, their son Chris, daughters Kate, Susan and Vicki and grandchildren Amy, Hayley, Matthew and Max.

In his own words: “The actor, the joker, the romantic – not bad eh?”

The funeral takes place next Tuesday at St Charles Borromeo, Jarratt Street, Hull.