WHEN Monica Jones approached the then-editor of the Farnham Herald, Oliver Meddows-Taylor, for a job in 1950 she was told in no uncertain terms that the paper “already had one female reporter” and he didn’t want any more.

This may have discouraged meeker characters - but not Monica, who set out to persuade him that as a member of a local hop-growing family and niece of Farnham magistrate and councillor Alan Tice, she was “a good bet” for local knowledge.

Over the following 62 years Monica, who passed away on Wednesday, January 25. aged 90 after a short illness, certainly didn’t disappoint.

Born on May 1, 1926, the middle child of hop-farmers Fred and Muriel Tice, Monica enjoyed a joyous childhood with her two sisters Daphne and Elizabeth - bounding around her family’s farm in Runfold and riding wagons brimming with fragrant hops.

But it was upon graduating from Guildford High School that Monica’s adventures would truly begin, as she took her first job as an au pair in Paris and spent her first night in the City of Love sleeping on a park bench.

More extraordinary tales followed when, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Monica entered wartime service with the ATS as an ambulance driver in Dover.

These included the times she unknowingly transported a convicted murderer, attempts to shoot down Doodle Bugs with an ack ack gun and a dramatic crash into the - fortunately empty - ward of a hospital after the brakes of her van failed.

After the war Monica moved to London and, seeking fresh experiences, hopped between a variety of jobs with the Department of Experimental Surgery at the College of Surgeons, legal organisation the Inns of Court in Holborn Street and railway book publisher Ian Allen, liaising with authors such as Thomas the Tank Engine creator the Rev Wilbert Awdry.

The one constant throughout these varied roles was Monica’s passion for meeting new people and, having decided to move back home aged 23, this same ambition led her to pursue a career as a journalist with the Farnham Herald.

Farnham was still at that time very much a country market town and Monica’s first assignments at the Herald included reporting on annual hop and crop reports, ploughing matches and point-to-points, farmers’ lunches and harvest suppers.

She was also assigned a group of villages to ‘cover’ and promptly cycled out to Selborne and Worldham, Badshot Lea and Froyle - making many friends while picking up local news on visits to the vicar, the school, the village bobby and the shop.

Delighted with her new way of life, Monica settled in Farnham and married Ray Jones at Guildford registry office on May 31, 1958. Together they bought a house in Beaufort Road, and their first child Philippa was born in 1961 followed by Daniel in 1964.

Over the proceeding decades with the Herald, Monica reported on momentous change both socially and politically in Farnham - ranging from the reorganisation of local government to the building of new schools, council houses on hop land at The Chantrys and Sandy Hill, the rebuilding of East Street and South Street, new churches and the sports centre, the extension of the by-pass and introduction of the one-way system.

She also oversaw many changes to printing and editorial techniques at the Herald - from hand-written copy when she joined, to computers and e-mail - before retiring from full-time work in 1990 following nine years as chief reporter.

After her husband’s death on May 26, 1998, just five days short of their 40th wedding anniversary, Monica continued to live in Beaufort Road with her daughter and family.

She also remained on the Herald staff as a much-loved columnist until finally hanging up her notebook for good in 2011 but even then, despite her failing eyesight, she would still regularly call up the Herald newsroom with titbits of news right up until her death.

Monica’s successor as Herald chief reporter and long-time colleague, Corina Larby, said in tribute: “I was one of dozens who, over the years, took their first steps in journalism with Monica’s warm encouragement, the benefit of her experience and her shining example. I count myself very fortunate to have had her as a colleague and friend for more than four decades.

“I have never forgotten her telling me that a newspaper should serve as an important historic record, never just tomorrow’s fish and chip paper, and this was the principle she followed, always applying the same meticulous standards, whether reporting on a minor social event or a controversy of major proportions.

“Recognised by people in all spheres of life as a safe pair of hands, she gained many friends in the town and they just loved to bring her their news. After I succeeded her as chief reporter on her ‘retirement’ in 1990, many people still insisted they must speak only to Monica and she continued to help fill the Herald’s columns, even providing snippets in her 91st year.

“In latter years she continued to write despite severe sight problems. ‘Down the Years’, her occasional series published by the Herald and based on her childhood on the Tice family farm at Badshot Lea and her experiences as a news gatherer, was regarded by some as the best read in the whole paper.”

Wendy Craig, executive director of Tindle Newspapers Ltd, added: "Monica was a fountain of knowledge on old Farnham and was greatly valued, not only as a superb reporter, but as a kind and considerate person. She will be greatly missed and we send condolences to her family.”

A former editor of the Herald, Peter Thompson, also said of his long-time colleague: “I very soon realised that here was a person with an intimate knowledge of Farnham and its citizens.

“Whatever Monica wrote about the town could be taken as fact. Her love of Farnham was very evident in everything she wrote.”

Monica is survived by her two sisters Daphne and Elizabeth, daughter Philippa and son Daniel, and five grandchildren Izaac, Martha, Hannah, Rosie and Pheobe.

All are welcome to attend a thanksgiving service in Monica’s memory at St Andrew’s Parish Church in Farnham, at 1.30pm on Monday, February 27 - followed by a tea party at Monica’s request in the Museum of Farnham’s garden gallery at 2.30pm.

This will follow a family-only funeral at Aldershot Crematorium.