Former editor of The Guardian

Born: May 23, 1938;

Died: January 6, 2018

PETER Preston, who has died aged 79, was a journalist and former editor of The Guardian who oversaw a radical redesign of the paper and the introduction of many of the innovations which are still popular today, including the G2 supplement. The paper broke many agenda-setting stories during his time as editor but his biggest regret was that the leaking of cruise missile documents to the Guardian in the 1980s led to the imprisonment of the Foreign Office clerk Sarah Tisdall.

Preston joined the Guardian in 1963, was editor between 1975 and 1995 and later went on to be a columnist for the Guardian and Observer.

Born in Leicestershire, he had polio as a child, an illness that his father died from. He went to Oxford University where he edited the Cherwell, the student newspaper, and became a trainee at the Liverpool Daily Post before moving on to the Manchester Guardian in 1963.

Successful spells as a reporter, foreign correspondent, features editor and night editor helped lay the path for him to take on the editorship in 1975 at the age of 37.

Among the agenda-setting stories during his reign were the sleaze scandals which hit former prime minister John Major's government, and the 1994 cash-for-questions affair in which MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith were said to have been paid to ask questions on behalf of Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed. A libel case against the newspaper by Mr Hamilton was eventually dropped.

Investigative journalism into defence procurement minister Jonathan Aitken led to allegations that he took bribes from Saudi arms dealers, which resulted in the Conservative MP's eventual imprisonment.

The G2 supplement was launched during Preston 's leadership, he oversaw the redesign of the newspaper and he helped it contend with the launch of a new rival at The Independent and a brutal price war.

Preston was editing the Guardian when documents were leaked to the paper revealing when cruise missiles would be placed at Greenham Common airbase. The newspaper was then drawn into, and lost, a legal battle with Margaret Thatcher's government to hand them over.

Preston later said that having to hand over the evidence was one his regrets of his time at the Guardian. Sarah Tisdall was later sentenced to six months in prison.

He also penned novels including Bess and 51st State. His last column on press and broadcasting was published on New Year's Eve.

Guardian Brexit correspondent Lisa O'Carroll said: "Peter Preston reminded us all (journalists), to his and Sarah Tisdall's cost, of the importance of shredding documents and of our duty to be willing to go to jail to protect a source (something apposite today in the world of phoney social media journalism)".

Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian and Observer, described him as a brilliant editor adding: "Peter has been a kind and unobtrusively supportive friend, providing advice and insights and the kind of ballast that could only come from someone who'd been there and done it."

Peter Preston died at home10 years after melanoma first struck and 20 months after it returned.

His son Ben, writing in The Sunday Times, said: "Dad died a good death, one that amplified the qualities we so admired while he lived. Resilience, bravery, wisdom, he was loved and loving until the end. The fulcrum of our family."

He is survived by his wife Jean, two sons and two daughters.