Published: Friday, 6th February, 2009 12:33pm

A message from the founder

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I was born the son of a dentist in Wrexham, North Wales in 1916.

Unfortunately in 1943 I was made a Japanese prisoner of war and for three and a half years, life was extremely tough and my weight plummeted to under seven stone.

After the war I was sent on a rehabilitation course at Sunninghill Park near Ascot.

I went on to start a business in Yateley working as a car mechanic from a garage in a lady's garden. A kind woman took pity on me and allowed me to work from her garage.

Some time later on a very cold frosty day I thought it would be a laugh to take my car onto a frozen lake for a spin, being young and silly I didn't realise that the ice was too thin to hold the weight of the car.

I walked to a local Garage to get some help and met the proprietor's daughter - Rose

We later met and married, and had two daughters - Vanessa and Carol.

Rose's father Joe Smith owned a newsagents where Rose worked and we lived in the flat above the shop when we first married and I helped out in the shop.

Needing a challenge in my life I decided to start up a local paper and formed The Reading Newspaper Company and local people became shareholders.

The Bracknell News started in a room in the flat above the shop, it was very unusual for a man with no experience in journalism to start up a local paper, but I was determined to do it.

There were a few problems when we first started, the worse being the journalists going on strike for six weeks.

We got over the problem by producing the paper on a Roneo machine and sold the papers straight off it.

By the end of the first year I had seven members of staff and hired Roy Bustin as editor along with reporters Chris Ward and Horace Cheney.