Tributes pour in for newspaper journalist and photographer
ONE of Wales’ bestknown newspaper photographers, Tony Paradice, has died.
He spent the majority of his working life with the Western Mail in its Carmarthen office before retiring in 2006.
Mr Paradice passed away at his home in Llanddowror, St Clears, following a heart attack. He was 78.
Born in Cardiff, he left school to study photography before joining the South Wales Argus in Newport in 1959, the hometown of his future wife Dianne.
They married in 1964. Shortly after, he moved to the Western Mail and Echo in Cardiff – and the path for the rest of his working life.
In 1984 he moved to the Western Mail’s office in Carmarthen and the Paradices, with daughters Lucy and Sophie, moved to Pocket Lane in the village of Llanddowror near St Clears, which has been their home ever since.
Ex-Western Mail colleague Clive Lewis, at his Vale of Glamorgan home, said: “He covered Wales from east to west, the South Wales valleys and all points west when he moved to Carmarthen.
“His pictures were as distinctive as his surname,” Mr Lewis said.
Countless royal visits and international rugby and football matches were spliced in with tragic events like Aberfan in his working portfolio, alongside the everyday happenings and people of Wales.
In recent years the recording of the startto-finish building of the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne in the Towy
Valley was a assignment daily diary.
An incident, recalled by Mr Lewis, made the front page of the Western Mail as well as the national newspapers when Mr Paradice was covering a Royal visit to Cardiff in the late 1960s.
Keen as ever to get the best shot, Paradice kneeled unknowingly in the path of the Duke of Edinburgh, causing the inquiry: “What on earth are you doing down there, sir?”
Colleagues, Mr Paradice and the Duke all saw the funny side of the footman pose.
Colleague and former journalist Roger Sims remembers teaming up with Mr Paradice when he joined the Argus and described him as a “fine, fine man”
Mr Sims added: constant on the
“He was a lovely man and I shall miss him greatly.
“He was not only a great photographer but a great journalist, too. He was the photographer any reporter would want to team up with on a job.
“He had a great sense of humour and covered every aspect of life across South Wales through his photography.
Outside the office, interests in clocks, antiques and cars took his attention but the family home garden at Llanddowror was to be his main love after retirement in 2006.
He was a member of Llanddowror and Llanmiloe Community Council for many years and its chairman in 2015.
His funeral is on Friday at 2pm at St Teilo’s Church, Llanddowror.