Thomas, Harry – District reporter became voice of SKDC

Harry Rainford Thomas (1933-2018)

Harry Thomas was born in Dundee, the second youngest in a family of seven.

During the war, he was put on a train with a label tied to his coat and a bag of sweets and evacuated to Brechin for the duration.

He excelled at school and was awarded the Dux Medal in his final year. At school he began studying book-keeping, typing and Pitman’s shorthand.

As his parents could not afford for him to attend Grammar School, left school at 15 and got a job at the Dundee Courier and the Fife Herald as a news reporter.

After two years in the RAF for his National Service, he returned journalism.

In February 1960, he took a coach down from Scotland with the Scotland Rugby team and reported on the Wales Scotland International at Cardiff Arms Park.

At a dance that night that he met Mair, whom he married then moved to Fife they had four children.

The following year, they moved south and Harry took a job as chief reporter at the Grantham Journal.

In the late 1960s, he moved to the Nottingham Evening Post and covering Grantham, Newark and the surrounding area. He was based at the former Blue Lion (now Linpet House) Market Place.

He was a regular at Grantham Magistrates Courts, reporting most of the hearings.

After more than 25 years with the Nottingham Evening Post, Harry moved to South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) to be their public relations officer, retiring 10 years later in 1998.

It was during his time at the council, Mair died suddenly in 1995, but three years later he married Mary, who was town clerk at Bourne.

His first cancer operation was in 1992, Harry was diagnosed with cancer a second time and had hormone treatment before being diagnosed with a third cancer in 2017.

He died in Derby in 2018.