Inspirational news man dies aged 93 (From Stroud News and Journal)

Inspirational news man dies aged 93

A LEGEND of local newspapers has died at the grand old age of 93.

Jack Sollars, former SNJ news editor and inspiration to a generation of journalists, past away at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on Sunday.

Mr Sollars began his career as a cub reporter in Stroud before moving to Cornwall to work on district papers there.

The Second World War interrupted his newspaper work and Mr Sollars was shipped off to North Africa.

He had a real gift for storytelling and his war stories alone would keep Hollywood script writers in material for months.

He was captured while fighting Rommell's armies before being taken back to Italy as a prisoner of war where he fell seriously ill, contracting tuberculosis of the spine.

This did not stop him escaping from a prison hospital and holding off the Germans after linking up with a rag-tag bunch of British, American and Yugoslavian soldiers before fleeing into the Apennines and hiding out with the mountain peasants.

After the war he returned to journalism and in the 50s took up a position as news editor on the Stroud Journal.

In his professional life Mr Sollars was a dedicated newspaper man and a keen advocate of improving training standards in journalism.

"He was a fantastic training officer," said Dennis Mason who trained under Mr Sollars and later became editor of the SNJ. "A lot who got to the top owe a real debt of gratitude to Jack Sollars.

"He was a wonderful worker and his local knowledge was unrivalled - he took a keen interest in everything from local government to sport.

"He was a lovely chap."

His other claims to fame included coming up with the name for Archway School, which would otherwise have been the rather-less-imaginative Paganhill Comprehensive.

He was in the vanguard of journalists who pushed for a standard qualification for a profession that had previously lacked structure.

For the latter he was made a life member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

SNJ editor Skip Walker this week remembered him with fondness. "Although I never worked with Mr Sollars, he was of enormous help to me after I became editor.

"He never interfered but frequently rang in and generously gave me the benefit of his unrivalled knowledge of Stroud and its recent history."

Right up until the end Mr Sollars had a sharp, well-ordered mind that would have been the envy of people half his age.

The letter from poet and author Laurie Lee printed in the SNJ the week Jack retired sums up the impact he had on the paper and the people of the Five Valleys.

It read: "With your retirement Jack one of Lansdown's most literate Lords departs and leaves us with a resounding silence.

"No-one will ever quite replace the humane and enquiring voice with which you have enlivened the paper - and us - for so many years."