Thomas Henry Stanley, the former editor of the Pfizer magazine has died, aged 86, after a short illness.

Tom was born in Birmingham in 1926, only son of Thomas Henry and Nellie (nee McNeil) Stanley. During the war he was conscripted as a ‘Bevin Boy’, to help meet the desperately needed coal supplies for the war effort and to keep the home fires burning through the war years.

After the war Tom began his career as a journalist. His first job was as a junior reporter was with the Birmingham Weekly Post. He enjoyed the excitement of journalism along with the challenge of reporting on a wide variety of stories for his newspapers, the Birmingham Post and Manchester Evening News chief among them. Tom later become the house journalist for Pfizer in Sandwich and worked there as the editor of the Pfizer Europe magazine until his retirement.

In 1953, Tom met Irene Woodbridge when he stumbled into her at ice rink. They were married on September 18 1954. They had four children, Peter, Susan, Jennifer and Micheal. By the 1990s Tom and Irene also had four grandchildren; Ben, Sam Rory and Alice.

In 1959 the family moved to Deal seafront. Tom was confirmed at St Andrew's in 1960 and became an active member of the church. For many years after moving to Walmer, he was a member of the pastoral team of St Mary’s Church. It was here he met Doreen with whom he happily spent his last two years, living at The Shrubbery.

Tom loved mountaineering. He began climbing soon after the war, when he would cycle from Birmingham to climb in North Wales. Over 60 years he had numerous expeditions to Europe, conquering many of the famous alpine peaks, including the Matterhorn, the Eiger and Mont Blanc. Much of Tom’s leisure time was taken up with his passion. He would train for big climbs by carrying rucksacks full of rocks along the shingle beach between Sandown to Sandwich Bay. Climbing till the last, in 2012, Tom celebrated his 85th birthday with an expedition to the Sinai Mountains in Egypt.

After 48 years of happy marriage, Irene died on November 12 2002. Since then Tom has travelled extensively throughout Europe and then Middle East with his children.

The funeral will take place at 3.15pm on Wednesday October 16 at St Mary’s Church, St. Clare Road, Walmer, followed by a service of committal at Barham Crematorium and a reception at Broome Park Golf and Country Club

Tom requested no flowers but any cards and charitable donations (made payable to the BMC Access and Conservation Trust) sent c/o the funeral directors:

Funeral directors - Andrew Crowther, J Dilnot Smith & Son, 184 Gladstone Rd, Walmer, Deal, Kent, CT14 7EL (01304 380914).

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