A respected newspaper editor, lifelong journalist and author has died after a long battle with dementia.

John Evans passed away at the Maidstone Care Centre nursing home in the early hours of March 19 after a seven-year struggle with dementia. He was 91.

Born on December 22, 1933, Mr Evans was educated at Borden Grammar School in Sittingbourne before becoming a junior reporter on the town’s East Kent Gazette newspaper.

With a strong interest in sport, he progressed to senior reporter before moving to take up a position first as sports editor with the East Grinstead Observer and then in 1961 as sports editor for the Kent Messenger Group.

His success in that role led to his appointment as chief sub-editor, then deputy editor of the Kent Messenger, before in 1981 he became briefly the editor of the Kentish Express, another paper in the Kent Messenger family.

In 1982, he returned to the group’s headquarters in Larkfield to become editor of the Kent Messenger, a position he held for the next 12 years.

During Mr Evans’ editorship, the KM won the UK Press Gazette Newspaper of the Year award, several national design awards, and reached its peak circulation of more than 50,000 copies a week.

His 25 years with the KM were marked in 1986 by his colleagues with the production of a dummy front page, headlined Evans Above.

During his period at the KM, he wrote the photo books Images of Maidstone, and Images of the Medway Towns, using material from the paper’s archives.

In 1994, heart bypass surgery forced him to seek a less stressful role and he relinquished the editorship of the KM, spending his last years with the company in its Canterbury office until his retirement on December 22, 1998, aged 65.

Ever since attending the first post-war county cricket game at Gillingham in May, 1946, he had been an avid supporter of Kent County Cricket Club, and he closely followed the club’s ‘Glory Years’ in the 1970s.

Both before and after retirement, he volunteered to help the club in many ways, most notably in editing from 1988 to 2001 the substantial Kent annual.

His contributions were marked by the club with honorary life membership.

He was also a member - and served on the committees - of both the Kent County Supporters Club and The Cricket Society, frequently attending meetings in London as the press and publicity officer from 1998 to 2004.

He was an enthusiastic cricketer and scored many runs for Rodmersham CC and later for Bobbing Court CC, both East Kent League clubs.

He was also an active Rotarian in his hometown of Sittingbourne.

A dedicated jazz enthusiast, he had a cherished record collection.

Dennis Fowle, another former KM editor, said: “John and I were friends from the age of five and he was best man at my wedding.

“We shared so many interests including journalism, sport and our families.

“John had a lovely sense of humour and was a man of integrity.

“He was much respected as a journalist and editor.”

Mr Evans leaves two children, Kim and Howard from his first marriage, and his second wife Audrey and her two sons David and Richard.

His funeral will be on Monday, April 28, at 12 noon at the Garden of England Crematorium in Bobbing, near Sittingbourne.