ECCLES BORN JOURNALIST AND 'BRITAINS GREATEST NEWSPAPER EDITOR' SIR HAROLD EVANS, DIES FROM HEART FAILURE IN NY, AGED 92

A local journalist who was once declared Fleet Streets greatest newspaper editor has died aged 92-years old in New York.

Harold Evans was born on the 28th of June 1928 in Patricroft, Eccles, son of Welsh parents who had moved to Eccles, his father finding employment as a local train driver.

He would go on to enjoy a career in journalism which would span 70 years but very much founded in local journalism.

Sir Harold found employment as a journalist with the Manchester Evening News but built his reputation back in the 1960's as the hard hitting editor of the Northern Echo, working on campaigns which led to national screening for cervical cancer which has undoubtedly saved countless lives over they years as well as in reducing air pollution which at the time and as now, was a major problem in inner cities and urban areas.

He also tirelessly investigated and campaigned for compensation for British expectant mothers who had been prescribed Thalidomide during the late 1950's, which led to thousands of children being born with missing limbs, deformed hearts, as well as a whole host of other birth defects attributed to the drug which was administered to prevent morning sickness.

His campaign led to an increase in the compensation given to victims by drug manufacturer Distillers Company.

Sir Harold would spend some 14-years as editor of the Sunday Times, then moving on to edit the Times of London, not long after Rupert Murdoch bought the paper in 1981. His term with the publication would last only a year as he quit or was rather ousted after a dispute with the Australian media mogul over editorial independence.

The giant of journalism never forgot his humble working class roots and used his talents to both represent and fight for the people of this country during many media campaigns.

For his efforts, in 2004 he was bestowed with a knighthood by the Queen for his services to British Journalism.

However it was during 2002 that he was given the even higher honour in his eyes of being named as the greatest newspaper editor of all time by Britain's Press Gazette and the British Journalism Review, an accolade he cherished.

In his final years, Evans would continue to write and conduct interviews as editor-at-large of Thomson Reuters. He would continue to encourage journalists old both and young. 

Sir Harold passed away due to congestive heart failure in New York, according to his second wife Tina Brown.