Friends and colleagues pay respects to much-loved Express & Star writer Peter Rhodes

Friends and former colleagues turned out to pay their last respects to much-loved Express & Star and Shropshire Star columnist Peter Rhodes.

Peter, who worked for the titles for 40 years, died last month after being diagnosed with cancer.

He retired from his role as chief feature writer in 2012, but continued to write a daily column for the two newspapers until last year.

Writing for the newspapers for the last time in December, he told readers he was in the advanced stages of terminal cancer.

At his funeral in Leamington Spa today, his old English teacher Tony Parkinson remembered how 12-year-old Peter immediately took to creative writing when he introduced the new style of teaching to his class.

About 60 people turned out for the funeral at Dale Street Methodist Church, to hear memories about his career in journalism and his service in the Territorial Army.

His coffin arrived to the strains of The Warwickshire Lads quick march, which was adopted by the Warwickshire Regiment.

Long-time friend Tony Lennox, who worked with Peter early in his career, recalled how, on a trip together in London, he got off prematurely at the wrong Tube station after studying a map of the London Underground.

“It was only then that I learned he was colour blind,” he said.

His brother Tim read out a verse from Rudyard Kipling, one of Peter’s favourite writers.

Peter's time with the Express & Star and Shropshire Star took him to the Arctic Circle, the Falkland Islands, the last days of British Hong Kong and South Africa as apartheid started to crumble. He travelled to war-torn Sarajevo, took veterans back to the beaches of Normandy and spent a week touring the Black Country in a narrowboat.

He celebrated his four decades with the paper in August last year, just as it was revealed from a prostate test that he was suffering from cancer in the kidney.

In a message to readers after his diagnosis, he said: "I wanted to thank all the thousands of readers who have read my columns over the years and hopefully enjoyed them."

Peter began his career as a trainee reporter on the Leamington Spa Courier in 1969, and worked on the Coventry Telegraph and Birmingham Evening Mail before joining the Express & Star in 1985, in response to an advert for a 'top writer'.

He described it as the ‘best of moves’ and formed a strong bond with readers both through his features and his daily column.

He was a fierce advocate for the region and also championed veterans, travelling with them to Normandy for Second World War anniversaries.

He said: "The Express & Star sent me around the world to see places I'd never dreamed of and to meet people I would never otherwise have encountered."

"I was proud to get the job all those years ago, proud to represent the newspaper known as 'the Bible of the Black Country'. And especially proud, on assignments all over this wide and wicked world, to introduce myself: 'Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star'."