THE founder of a well-known press agency based in Hindhead has died.

Denis Cassidy, 81, founder of Cassidy and Leigh, Southern News Agency, died peacefully in Frimley Park Hospital, surrounded by his family.

As a national newspaper reporter who became a freelance agency chief, Mr Cassidy earned the respect and admiration of colleagues and competitors alike

Constantly on the alert for exclusives, he led by example, and was renowned for scooping the opposition in a career that spanned more than six decades. 

He saw newspapers move from the period of ‘hot metal’ to computer designed page layouts, and more recently instant online news, and Denis always embraced change while maintaining the highest standards of his profession.

Born in Miles Platting, Manchester, in 1935, the son of an optician, Mr Cassidy loved nothing better than telling a tale.

He inspired generations of journalists with his unique talents, his passion for the job, his innate cunning, writing talent, and an ability to get the stories that lesser men could not.

He instilled unswerving loyalty in the legions who worked for him – and was responsible for training and fostering the careers of literally hundreds of top-flight journalists.

Following national service, in the RAF, Denis began his career on the Irlam Guardian and then moved to the Sheffield Star where he famously ‘fixed it’ for his pal Michael Parkinson to land a date with Mary, his wife to be.

From Sheffield he moved to the Empire News – a legendary Manchester broadsheet paper and also worked on the Sunday Pictorial, which became the Sunday Mirror.

In 1961 he opened the Cassidy and Leigh Agency, in Surrey, with his lifelong friend Don Leigh.

Cassidy and Leigh ‘old boys’ include former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke and ex-Daily Mail foreign editor Anthony Harwood, along with the late Harry Aspey, one time Press Association managing editor.

Denis married his Spanish-born wife Maria Isabel in Seville, in 1963 and the couple set up home and raised their family in Hampshire.

Lured back to Fleet Street in the 1960s, Denis was appointed senior reporter at the Sunday People in its heyday.

To list the stories he covered would take a book, but perhaps his most notable was the series of exclusives derived from the bond of trust he established with the widow of Lieutenant ‘H’ Jones – the most senior officer killed in the Falklands War 1982.

In 1974, Mr Cassidy tried his hand at politics and stood for the Liberal Party in a by-election at Daventry, Northants and attracted 13,640 votes – more than 21 per cent of the turnout.  

In 1982, he was one of the founder members of the National Association of Press Agencies (NAPA), and remained its president and most outspoken advocate to the end. 

Daily Mail assistant editor Charles Garside said: ”Denis was one of the great characters of Fleet street whose enthusiasm never diminished.”

Ex-NAPA chairman Chris Johnson, latterly of Liverpool’s Mercury Press, said: “Denis was a man of the highest integrity and a consummate professional. 

“He was devoted to his family and it was a joy for him to have them around him. We shall truly never see his like again."

Mr Cassidy is survived by his sons Paul and Ian and daughter Raquel.