A JOURNALIST with the Bolton Evening News group of newspapers has died, aged 83.

Harold Williams, who lived with his wife, Joyce, in North Road, Atherton was a respected member of the editorial team based at the Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton Journal.

Born in Glossop his family moved to Atherton when Harold was 10 and at 16 he joined the Journal staff. After a spell at the Eccles Journal he moved out of journalism after wartime service with the Royal Air Force. He took a clerical post at Greenhalgh's Atherton foundry.

At the age of 40 he returned to the Tillotsons Newspapers fold and retired from the Railway Road office in Leigh at 65 as senior reporter, later returning on a part-time basis.

Always one for a laugh, Harold once turned down the chance of writing a story about the Beatles.

According to office legend when Beatles' manager Brian Epstein popped in one day in 1963 and announced "we've got Beatles at the Casino" and asked if he'd like to do a story, Harold promptly replied: "Well, what are you telling me for, go and get some DDT from t'Town Hall".

And as a young reporter hard-of-hearing Harold would often announce judgement aloud before the magistrates had issued their verdict.

The court was in uproar when he passed his own sentence on a female drunk who'd put on a good show: "Three months in Holloway and an Oscar..."

His funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon at Howe Bridge where a service was conducted by the Rev Brenda Catterall, who worked with Harold during her time as a reporter with the Journal.