Former Eastbourne Herald stalwart passes away

Peter Davis died last month and his funeral is on February 22.

Mr Davis worked on the newspaper for 56 years having started as linotype apprentice in 1944.

He retired as a proof reader at the age of 70.

Mr Davis left Hampden Park School at the age of 14 and started an apprenticeship with the Gazette and Herald.

His first jobs were to take down the blackout curtains and wash the boss’s bike.

First World War veterans taught Mr Davis his trade of copy holding and trained him up to be a compositor to hand set hot metal for printing.

Mr Davis left the company for the first time in 1948 to do his National Service.

He travelled to Egypt with the Royal Medical Corps.

Mr Davis returned to Eastbourne and working at the newspaper and found the work process change from print setting to paste up, which involved using a special keyboard and cutting and pasting columns on to pages.

In 1969 Mr Davis, his wife Phyllis and their young daughter Lynn sold their home in Coastguard Square and emigrated to Australia.

He worked on the Melbourne Age and then for The Jewish News and his second daughter Helen was born there.

The family returned to Eastbourne and Mr Davis resumed his career at Beckett Newspapers and once again watched print change – this time to computer layout.

He retired in 1995 but only for one week and returned to work part-time as a proof reader.

Mr Davis finally retired at the age of 70 and said at the time, “I’ve enjoyed working at Becketts. It’s not one of those jobs where you think, ‘oh no, I’ve got to come to work’.”

A keen sportsman, Mr Davis played football for Hampden Park for 16 years, enjoyed rowing and also played archery.

He moved to Tunbridge Wells 10 years ago to be closer to his daughter Lynn.

His wife Phyllis died six months ago and Mr Davis died of Covid.