Last updated 05:32, Friday, 27 June 2008

In a very real sense, Harry Watson represented Wigton. As a local newspaper journalist, he reported on all sorts of events in and around the town for almost 40 years and he played a prominent part in welfare activities there.

Harry Watson: As well as reporting on events in and around Wigton, he played an active part in the welfare of pensioners in the town

He knew many people in all walks of life and could probably have gone on to be part of a much wider field in journalism but chose not to do so.

For Wigton was his home and it was where he lived and worked for almost all of his 89 years.

Although he made his mark in local journalism, he might never have taken up the profession at all because, as a young man, he was a good enough footballer to be given a trial by Preston North End. But such was a player’s pay in those days that he decided he could not afford it.

He never played rugby but became an authority on rugby union, writing reports for the Daily Telegraph and doing some work for the BBC.

Born in Wigton, Harry Featherstone Watson left school to work in McMechan’s print shop, which was owned by his uncle. After completing a shorthand course at Carlisle Technical College, he joined the staff of the Wigton Advertiser which was owned by the editor, Robert Scott-Wilson, and his uncle, Richard Wilson, and became a junior reporter covering events in and around the town. He covered his first murder trail when he was only 18. Then came World War Two and he joined the RAF, becoming a sergeant at Padgate, Warrington, where he dealt with recruiting but later moved on to work in the codes and cyphers field. This work took him to India for three and a half years and he was based at the Dum-Dum airport, Calcutta.

While he was in uniform, the Wigton Advertiser ceased publication so, on demob in 1946, he had to find another job and this he did, with the Carlisle Journal. Before the war he had done some freelance reporting for The Cumberland News and, after just six months with the Journal, he joined the CN full time and remained with the newspaper for 37 years.

He worked mainly from home, covering all manner of events in Wigton and in a wide surrounding district.

Outside journalism, he played a prominent part in the life of the town, as a member of Wigton Rotary Club from 1961 until the day he died, serving as its president in 1971-2. Until recently, he was chairman of the Pensioners’ Association in Wigton and served on the committee of the Abbeyfield Society for many years.

As a youngster, he tramped for miles in and around the town, as a paper delivery boy and he had also been a better-than-average swimmer.

Mr Watson was a member of the congregation at the Wigton Methodist Church and it was there that his funeral service was held. It was followed by cremation in Carlisle.

He had been married for 67 years to Ruby (née Foster) from Dearham and he leaves her, their son and daughter, three grandsons, a granddaughter and a great-grandson.

Hill’s of Wigton made the funeral arrangements.