The funeral of former Express & Star deputy editor Bill Jolly will be held next week.

Friends and family of the 86-year-old will gather at Gornal Wood Crematorium next Thursday, February 5, for the service from 2.10pm.

Born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, Mr Jolly started life in newspapers as a club reporter on the Liverpool Echo, later moving to the Express & Star’s Stafford district office. For many years until his retirement in 1981, he was deputy editor and news editor of the newspaper.

In the war, Mr Jolly served with the RAF in Burma and the Azores and was last year made an honorary life member of the Rotary Club after 40 years with the group.

Mr Jolly, of Lower Penn, near Wolverhampton, spent years carrying out voluntary work with talking newspapers for the blind and was also chairman of the appeals committee of the Wolverhampton, Dudley and Districts Institute for the Blind.

Relatives are asking for donations to the Beacon Centre for the Blind in Sedgley instead of flowers.