BELOVED former Worcester News picture editor Jonathan Barry has died aged 54 after battling cancer for the past few months.

Jonathan, described by wife Anita as "a fab husband and father" who "would do anything for anyone" joined the Worcester News in 2003  and rapidly became one of the most popular and accomplished members of the team.

Among several accolades, he won Highly Commended in the Midland Media Awards Newspaper of the Year Awards of 2014 for his photograph of a woman being rescued from rising flood waters in Worcester.

Jonathan died in Worcestershire Royal Hospital on Saturday, November 7 surrounded by his family. He left wife Anita, aged 54, daughters Charlotte, 26, and Jennifer, 24, and a great number of people feeling totally numbed.

Worcester News editor Michael Purton said: "Jonathan was an incredibly talented photographer who instinctively knew how to capture the best shot in any situation.

"Given the nature of our work, Jonathan often had to photograph people at times of tragedy or crisis but his sensitivity and mild-mannered charm meant he put them at ease.

"He was a hugely popular member of our team and had a fantastic sense of humour. He was always cracking jokes and making 'so bad they're good' puns and whenever he was in the office there was a sense of fun.

"We'll all miss him, but he lives on in our newsroom through the thousands of superb pictures he captured over the years."

There was never any doubt the young Jonathan was going to make a top class photographer. Born in Manchester, his father Jack was chief photographer of the Clitheroe Advertiser as well as one of the area’s leading freelances, while his mother Ann was for a while the official photographer of Blackburn Rovers, then in the top flight of English football.

Jonathan began his 'professional' photographic career early and by the age of 13 was cycling around the Ribble Valley with his camera in his saddlebag to help his father out on jobs. He went to college to study photography only for the lecturer to admit his young student knew more than he did. So after three months Jonathan left and joined the Accrington Observer as a freelancer.

He moved on to the Rochdale Observer and then joined the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, specialising in sports photography. These were among the glory years for Blackburn Rovers, when Kenny Dalglish had taken over as manager and the Scottish legend became a firm friend of the Barry family.

They were also the days when the press travelled on the plane with the players and Jonathan covered several of the club’s European Cup games, flying to destinations such as Moscow and Rome. Although one nearly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Somehow the mild mannered young Jonathan got into a raging row on board with Alan Shearer, the club’s rampaging centre forward and one of the hard men of English football. “I couldn’t believe it when he told me,” said his wife Anita. “I could never have imagined Jonathan raising his voice to anyone, let alone hitting them. But apparently other players had to pull the pair apart.”

'Shearer Snappered' was not a story Rovers would have relished.

In 1996, when on the Evening Telegraph, Jonathan and a reporter were despatched to Italy to catch up with Roy Hodgson after rumours began circulating that he was to be the next Blackburn Rovers manager and the pair got a scoop interview.

On the rush back to the airport, Jonathan sped straight  through a toll without paying to make sure he was home in time for Christmas. That was Jonathan the family man. It took six weeks before international law caught up with him.

“It was all typical Jonathan,” said Anita. “He would do anything for anyone, but family always came first. He was just a fab husband and father.”

On the other side of the journalist coin, covering the Blackburn race riots of the early 2000s was an altogether more fraught experience, especially after police attempted to gain access to press photographers’ material for prosecution evidence.

Jonathan felt this endangered his impartiality and made working in a very volatile situation all the more difficult. He did escape unscathed, but at times it was a close run thing.

In 2001, Jonathan and Anita and their two young daughters moved to New Zealand for two years, where he worked as a freelance with the dream job of covering the All Blacks rugby team as well as the Black Caps, New Zealand’s national cricket XI.

In 2003 the family returned to the UK, setting up home on Martley Hillside, and Jonathan joined the Worcester News, becoming picture editor and again a working news photographer. With his easy, engaging manner, he made friends wherever he went and even if you had never met him before it wasn’t long before you were talking like old friends. That was the Jonathan Barry we all know.

Jonathan remained taking photographs for the Worcester News and its sister titles up until spring this year.

Former Worcester News chief sub and columnist John Phillpott said: “Jonathan Barry was a professional of the old school, a snapper who could capture the precise moment that made for a great news picture.

“In this brave new world of digital trickery and excessive photo-shopping, Jonathan was a one-take man who could tell a story in the speed it took for his shutter to click. A true craftsman, the like of which we will never see again in provincial journalism, I am proud to have worked with him.”

Worcester's MP, Robin Walker, was among those Jonathan impressed over the years.

Mr Walker said: “Jonathan was a consummate professional and someone I met on many occasions. He always had the knack that all the best photographers have which is putting people at ease and was always totally friendly and totally focused.

"He always made his subjects feel comfortable and could be counted on to take fantastic photos whatever the occasion. He was certainly a great character who will be sorely missed.”

 Jonathan's passing follows the deaths earlier in the year of two more of our award winning press photographers, Jeremy Pardoe and John Pratt.