A PHOTOGRAPHER who served the Chard and Ilminster News for more than 60 years has passed away.

Dave Wheadon started working for the News in 1949 at the age of 17 when he photographed a fire at Yonder Hill saw mills.

Tributes have flooded from people who lived and worked with Dave, who recorded the town's biggest events for more than six decades, He passed away last Wednesday aged 84 after a few years of living with Alzheimer's.

Dave's daughter Linda said: "He was a photographer for more than 65 years and worked for news paper like the Chard and Ilminster News, as well as for HTV as a film camera man.

"He loved his job and his work, and he had a dry wicked sense of humour. He loved his children and his grandchildren."

Dave was married for 58 years to Clo, who he met when she started working as his assistant after he placed an advert in the Chard and Ilminster News in 1957.

They were married at St John’s Church in Tatworth in 1958 with the reception in the local Memorial Hall.

Clo said: "I met him about 60 years ago when I went to work for him after he advertised for assistants. He started working on his own at just 16 and he never had a boss really.

"He started from home and he would cycle to events with his heavy equipment. He went into the army for two years and when he came out he had an office where the Phoenix is now and he had another office with a dark room to do all the Chard and Ilminster pictures.

"We married on November 8, 1958. When we got married he was working all the time but he was a good man and he always looked after me.

"On our honeymoon he got his first cine-camera and then started to get work at HTV.

"He enjoyed his job, he was a good husband and a good dad. Even after he retired he continued to work for the paper doing two or three photographs every week."

Dave was born in Corfe, near Taunton, and moved to Wadeford in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

He attended the now closed Corfe Primary School, Combe St Nicholas Primary School and later Ilminster Grammar School.

He closed his Holyrood Street office in 1998 and then officially moved to part time work in 2000. However, he still couldn't give it up properly and continued to provide some pictures even after fracturing his skull in an accident in 2010 aged 78.

The funeral is due to be held on Friday from 10am at the Combe St Nicholas parish church.

Chard & Ilminster News:

END OF AN ERA: Dave featured in the Chard & Ilminster News when he went part-time in 2000.

Ken Bird, former editor-in-chief of the Chard and Ilminster News, said: "Dave summed up everything that is good about local newspapers.

"His contacts within the community were remarkable. He was well known, well liked and well be sadly missed."

Rob Drayton, Ilminster town councillor and former editor of the Chard and Ilminster News, worked with Mr Wheadon from 1968 until he retired. He said: “As a cub reporter in the 60s, and throughout the following decades his support and advice was immense - he knew all the tricks of the journalism trade.

"The incredible thing about Dave is that he had started to take photos for local papers even before he left Ilminster Grammar School.

"That was more than 60 years of dedication to a profession he gave his life to. Although he was a freelance photographer, the public came to see him as the face of the paper, he was an integral part of the staff - like a member of the News family.

"He will be remembered by thousands in the area, generation after generation getting their wedding photos, baby portraits, social occasions, into print but most of all his local newspaper pictures of every conceivable event public and private, and his library was immense. His face was known everywhere.

"His work for local and national television and regional and national newspapers was probably greater than most realise, and his biggest scoop was the only aerial newsreel of the demise of the Torrey Canyon back in the 60s.

"Dave's dedication to his work was only matched by his dedication to his wife Clo - his right-hand woman on everything he did - and his family.

"One feature he will be well remembered for was his Looking Back photos in the News, pulling photos from that huge library dating back over half a century for readers to try and spot themselves or friends and family at various events.

"Who hasn't been to an event that Dave attended for a press photo? Not many I bet.

"Dave was a true professional and a formidable colleague of considerable standing who will be missed by many around the area.

"His name will live on through his work which will be in family photographic collections throughout the district."

Val Keitch, the mayor of Ilminster, said: "Dave Wheadon took many iconic photos over the years and seemed to be a fixture at events in the Chard and Ilminster area.

"He came to take photographs when the attorney general visited to community justice panel in Chard some years ago. His skills have been missed and my thoughts are with his family at this sad time."