County Press columnist, retired journalist and Freshwater parish councillor Jonathan Young has died, at home, after a short illness, just days after his 71st birthday.

A proud Islander, he was brought up in the West Wight, until he won a scholarship to a mainland public school at the age of 11.

His Freshwater headmistress, the redoubtable Miss Hammett, had insisted he go to boarding school because she feared he would be too disruptive on the school bus to Carisbrooke.

As a choirboy at All Saints' Parish Church in Freshwater in 1960, he had led his fellow warblers out on strike when they were not paid extra for attending rehearsals.

He read politics and economics at Essex University, before becoming a journalist. His university holidays were all spent back on the Island, including spells as a conductor and later a bus driver for Southern Vectis.

Jon was always proud to have attended the 1970 Isle of Wight pop festival, sleeping with his friends in the bus shelter at Freshwater Bay.

Read more: Jonathan Young's final column for the CP

As a journalist he was an active member of the National Union of Journalists, including periods spent on the Provincial Newspapers Industrial Council.

He served as Father of Chapel (NUJ representative) for several years in Essex, including in the national journalists' strike of 1978-9.

For more than 23 years he worked on the Yorkshire Post, where he became the paper's first foreign editor.

A kind, gentle man, he was always on the side of the underdog. Jon despised political opportunism, and used his pen to skewer those who put dog-whistle party politics before the interests of the wider community.

In retirement he enjoyed writing his columns for the County Press, travelling, walking his dogs and meteorology.

One of his regrets was that he was turned down as a trainee weatherman by the Met Office, at the age of 18, because he did not have a physics A-level.

He firmly believed the Island was the best place in Britain to live.

He served as a councillor in Essex, and later, on his return to the Island, as a parish councillor, first in Niton, and then in Freshwater.

He leaves a widow, Janice, and a daughter.

Alan Marriott, editor of the County Press, said: "Jon was a credit to his profession; tenacious, accurate and fair.

"His columns shed more light than heat on matters national than local and his tips brought in many stories.

"He will be missed by all at the CP."

The funeral details have yet to be announced but the family have requested donations instead of flowers to Mountbatten.