PEOPLE from all walks of life have paid glowing tributes to former Romsey Advertiser editor, Terry Viney, who died last week.

Terry, who was born at Portersbridge Street, was 74, and he died after a long illness at the town's hospital.

It was a place he had always been keen to support and he had been involved in the two appeals launched to save and modernise it.

Terry was devoted to his beloved Romsey and the town and the Advertiser were his heartbeat.

A thanksgiving service for his life will be held at Romsey Abbey on Wednesday, September 19. It will be conducted by the Rev Bryan Taphouse and people attending the service are requested by his wife, Ann, and their daughters, Carolyne and Joanna, to wear red because it was Terry's favourite colour.

Dubbed "Mr Romsey" by many in the town, Terry had worked for the Advertiser for 41 years, the final 14 as editor after the death of the previous editor, Ken Vear, in 1984.

Terry, who was the Advertiser's longest-serving journalist, retired from full-time employment in February, 1998, but continued in a sub-editing role for a time.

During his time as editor, he oversaw an increase the paper's circulation and pagination and the arrival of colour.

Reflecting on his work at the newspaper on his retirement, Terry said: "The Romsey Advertiser has been my mistress for 41-and-a-quarter-years. I was inoculated with printer's ink and thereafter wedded to it. It was a job I fancied because it meant that I was meeting people, and I have been devoted to it ever since. I felt I was being a service to the community and town I love."

During his journalistic career, Terry covered thousands of events and met thousands of people including royalty and famous personalities such as Bruce Forsyth, Dame Vera Lynn and the actor, George Baker, who starred in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series on ITV. In June, he met the Queen and Prince Philip when they visited Romsey during the town's charter celebrations.

As a good friend, he had been on first-name terms with the late Lord Louis Mountbatten and also Lord and Lady Brabourne.

The saddest story Terry had to report on was the murder of Lord Mountbatten at Sligo, Ireland, in 1979, by the IRA.

He loved being out and about the Romsey area each autumn to report on ploughing matches staged by Growmore clubs at Tytherley and Wellow.

For nearly 15 years, he was chairman of the Hampshire branch of the National Union of Journalists.

Before joining the Advertiser in November, 1956, Terry had worked at the general store in Botley Road, owned by his father, Tom, and at Country Life Caravans sales belonging to Rolfe's Garage, at Winchester Hill, Romsey.

His father was a town mayor, a fact of which Terry was very proud, and also a professional photographer, whose work appeared in the Advertiser.

When he first arrived at the paper, as well as working as a reporter, Terry spent one day a week selling advertising.

"When they checked on sales and readership, independent researchers were puzzled that the paper sold more copies in Romsey than there were houses," said former Hampshire Chronicle editor, Alan Cleaver, who is now deputy editor of the Whitehaven News in Cumbria.

"But Terry was everything an editor should be: totally immersed in his community, fiercely loyal to his paper and a tireless campaigner for his reader. It was little surprise, therefore, that the Romsey Advertiser grew under his editorship to be one of the best-read papers in the country.

"He was a great friend and helper to me when I was a young editor of the Hampshire Chronicle. It was always good to have him as an ally in any boardroom battles.

"I still hear Terry's guiding voice when I face difficult decisions. 'What would Terry have done' is a question I can ask myself and that usually steers me in the right direction. I treasure many fond memories and anecdotes about this great man. One that always makes me smile was when he was having a 'lively discussion' with the managing director about increasing the number of pages so he could cram in even more stories. This argument was actually taking place at Terry's retirement dinner. Even though he was retiring, he was still fighting for his paper, his readers and his staff."