Former Kent newspaper editor Gerald Hinks has died at the age of 89.

After a journalistic career that began in Worcestershire, he became the youngest newspaper editor in the country when he was appointed to the position at the Sheerness Times Guardian at the age of 23.

He later moved to take charge of other newspapers including the East Kent Gazette series in Sittingbourne and then spent nearly two decades from 1970 at the Chatham News and Chatham Standard.

During that period, he trained numerous young journalists who went on to achieve success in various branches of the national media. These included: Sky News correspondent Martin Brunt; Peter Salmon, who became controller of BBC One; Graham Ellis, the BBC’s controller of production for radio and music; plus many reporters and sub-editors who went on to work for a variety of national newspapers.

Gerald, who lived in City Way, Rochester, took the Chatham News and Standard through an era of great success and won national awards for newspaper design.

He stayed on after the owners, Associated Kent Newspapers, sold the group to East Midlands Allied Press in 1988 but he later left the company.

Gerald moved into public relations with a job in the press office at Gillingham Council and then Medway Council, when the unitary authority was established.

After becoming ill with several ailments including a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer, he spent a few weeks in Medway Maritime Hospital, moving a fortnight ago into a Gillingham care home where he died on Tuesday.

Murray Evans, Gerald’s deputy for seven years, said: “When it came to newspaper reporting and presentation, Gerry was a perfectionist. Accuracy was paramount, together with spelling, grammar and punctuation.

“He wanted each edition to be the best it could be and to achieve that, he was usually the first person into the office and the last out.

“It is no surprise that so many reporters went on to achieve success in their own right and he will be remembered as a great inspiration.”

Gerald, whose wife Sue died two years ago, leaves a daughter, Laura, a son, David, and two grandchildren.