EDWARD Maurice (Ted) Parratt was born in Swan Cottage, Rowledge, on September 13, 1937, the second son of six children of Archibald Parratt and Elsie Parratt (nee Collyer).

Ted was a country boy, assisting with hop-picking and helping his grandad, Ernest Parratt, keep the wasps off his cider press. Ted’s early love of animals did not best please his mother, Elsie, however, when young Ted brought a squirrel home in his shirt.

Ted loved radio and films all his life. In the early 1950s, Saturday morning radio featured Breakfast with Braben, a satirical, political forerunner to That Was The Week That Was. He regularly visited the Regal Cinema in Farnham watching comedians Laurel and Hardy, Martin Dean and Jerry Lee Lewis or the latest film releases. Later in life, he relished the comedy of The Goons, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and Monty Python.

On leaving FGS in 1954, Ted worked in WH Smiths in The Borough, selling newspapers at the front of the shop. Inside WH Smiths worked Jean Bowdery. Jean invited work colleagues, including Ted, to her 21st birthday party in January 1956. Love blossomed and Jean and Ted married on May 5, 1956, and lived in caravans of increasing length as their family grew to a total of three children, Wendy, Mark and Deborah, in as many years. Ted trained as a wireless operator, acquiring skills which would serve him well for the rest of his life.

In early 1961, Ted left the RAF and the family moved to their last caravan site home in Whitehill. He cycled 12 miles to work at Haslemere Radio and Electrical, then, after the family moved into a rented house in Heath End, he worked at the Co-operative Society, Farnham as a radio and television engineer until 1969 by which time the family lived in Roman Way.

Ted succeeded at an Open University degree course, obtaining a BA (Honours) in 1974. This turned the direction of his life away from the practicality of electronic engineering to the demands and delights of journalism. He took up the post of chief sub-editor of the Farnham Herald under Robin Radley’s editorship in 1983 until the early 1990s.

Ted worked on the Surrey and Hants News and spent time with Berkshire Press, producing the Surrey Advertiser and Esher News. He was asked in 2002 by Sir Ray Tindle OBE to help produce his papers including the Alton Diary. In 2004, Jean and Ted started producing the popular Farnham Diary, Ted as editor and Jean as chief reporter and researcher. They loved producing the Farnham Diary. Their work on it kept them going when their youngest daughter, Deborah, died in 2011 but in June 2015 increasing age and ill health forced them, very reluctantly, to stop.

Daniel Gee, chief reporter at the Farnham Herald, paid tribute to Jean and Ted’s work on the Farnham Diary: “I, like many other thousands across Farnham, always thoroughly enjoyed reading the Farnham Diary and greatly respected their journalism. They truly embodied Sir Ray’s ‘hyper local’ ethos and set a genuine benchmark for us all to aspire to.”

Ted was an excellent jazz and classical guitarist. He loved a hot curry, a good pint of real beer and a robust philosophical or political discussion. A man standing at 6ft 4ins he also gave the very best hugs to those he loved most, his family and his dear wife of 60 years, Jean.

Ted struggled to cope after Jean’s death on October 21, 2016, but he loved spending time with his family, including his great-grandson Theo, his surviving children, Wendy and Mark, their spouses and his six adult grandchildren. He still felt very passionately about jazz, beer, film, radio, electronics, justice, responsible journalism and politics. He was fired up by all these right up until his death, which was peaceful, at home, on August 15, 2018. Ted will be sadly missed by all who loved him, made music with him, drank with him, worked with him or called him friend.