Tributes to journalist

Remembering Ken Bell

G8 conference at Gleneagles Hotel, attended by many world leaders.

He regularly attended Perth Show and covered a wide variety of other news events, but it was as the Courier’s angling correspondent that he was at his happiest, pursuing the sport he loved.

He quickly established a reputation as one of the country’s best-known angling reporters – covering the Tay and Earn systems and local fisheries for his own paper and a number of specialist publications, including Trout and Salmon.

He was also long-time secretary of the Perth and District Angling Association, assiduously contacting members for details of their returns.

In addition, he was a member of a number of other angling clubs and travelled with the Scottish angling team to provide coverage in international competitions.

His work, which included reporting not only on catches but also on the state of angling and fish stocks and trying to bring the results of research to the anglers, was recognised in March, 2007, when he was awarded with the Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay Conservation Award.

He retired from DC Thomson in 2008 after 48 years with the company.

He is survived by his wife Pat, whom he met in Kirkcaldy and married in 1968, as well as his daughters Allison and Jen, his sister Anne in New Zealand, and Allison’s fiancé Peter.

A retiring collection was taken at the crematorium for Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.