Obituary: Brian Walters, journalist

Born into a newspaper family, the youngest of three children, he took his first job at the Neath Guardian in South Wales before moving north – first to Accrington and the West Lancashire Gazette, and then the Halifax Evening Courier.

There followed spells on the Western Mail in Cardiff, the Birmingham Mail and the Yorkshire Evening Post, as local government correspondent.

In the mid-1980s he moved back to Wales as local government editor of the South Wales Evening Post, and when the Welsh Assembly was formed in 1999 he worked as a political and media advisor.

With a portable typewriter that had seen better days and a priceless book of contacts, Mr Walters had an unorthodox way of news gathering, said his former colleague, Edward Riley, later editor of the Courier.

“He had the ability to spot a story and quickly turn it into a little gem,” Mr Riley said.

Mr Walters is survived by his daughter, Vanessa, sons Geraint and Gareth and six grandchildren.