Much respected former Portsmouth News journalist dies

In the early 1970s Pat was appointed health specialist reporter with The News then left to live in Europe for a short time with her husband, Brian, who worked for IBM. On their return, they settled in Hayling Island and Pat became chief reporter at the newspaper's Havant office in West Street from where she became an important communicator of news from throughout the area, always delivering concise, accurate and readable copy efficiently.

She covered Havant Borough Council meetings and wrote features about people and places in addition to news reports.

Her friendly personality, reliability, sense of humour, adaptability and the quality of her work were all appreciated by her journalist colleagues as well as readers, members of the public and professionals with whom she came in contact.

Pat was born and grew up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Before training for her "dream job" as a journalist at Harlow Technical College in Essex, she began her lifelong interest in travel, including working as an au pair in New York and adventures in France and Norway. In later life, her mother, Beatrice Lowery, moved to Hayling Island to be near Pat and her family.

She lived with her husband and sons, David and Ben, in Hayling Island and, after The News group bought the monthly community newspaper, The Hayling Islander, in 1989, she was a natural fit for the job of Editor and reporter. Under her enthusiastic and knowledgeable guidance, the newspaper had become a 48-pager at the peak of its success in 2000.

Pat continued with freelance work for The News and other publications, tending to concentrate on gardening matters but she could turn her hand to anything such as interviewing Alan Titchmarsh, war veterans, local politicians and her favourite - ordinary people with a story to tell. She described her career as "always challenging, interesting and good fun".

Her interest in community life in Hayling was reflected in two books which she collated, Hayling Island in Old Picture Postcards, volumes one and two.

Pat was a keen walker and photographer throughout her life. She travelled widely including to New Zealand, crossing the USA by Greyhound bus, visiting the jungles of Costa Rica and, with her partner of the last 19 years, Alan Shute, enjoyed many more treks, travels and walking holidays, all over the UK, and to Tasmania, France, Spain and the Netherlands.