FORMER Oxford Mail and Daily Telegraph journalist Mark Stanway has died aged 61.

Mark Stanway worked as a journalist for 41 years including 20 years on the Daily Telegraph where he eventually became chief sub-editor of the Comments page.

He worked on newspapers across the world spending time in Cyprus, Bangkok, Hong Kong and latterly as the editor of an expat paper in France.

His sister Karen Brogan said he loved to socialise, had a wide circle of friends and a passion for reading and history.

Mark Colin Stanway was born in Leek, Staffordshire, on August 1, 1955, the son of Elvine (nee Clowes) and Colin Stanway, an engineer and partner in a firm manufacturing bespoke electric motors at a factory in Stoke-on-Trent.

He enjoyed a relatively privileged upbringing attending primary school in Leek and prep schools in Cheshire before his parents sent him to Winchester College an independent boys school in Hampshire.

On leaving school he returned to Leek and was taken on by the market town’s Post and Times newspaper where his career in journalism began.

He reported for the Congleton Chronicle and then the Macclesfield Advertiser before moving to the Evening Gazette in Blackpool and then the Yorkshire Evening Press, as a sub editor.

In his early 30s he moved to Nicosia in Cyprus where he helped produced the English-speaking Cyprus Mail newspaper before moving back to England at the Burton Mail.

He joined the Oxford Mail in 1989 where he worked as production editor before joining the Daily Telegraph.

In 1995 he started a paper in Bangkok and his adventures also took him to Hong Kong before returned to a staff job at the Daily Telegraph.

When the paper moved from Canary Wharf, Mark realised he could live in Oxford and commute on the Oxford Tube, so he returned to his beloved city and rented a flat in Summertown.

In 2010 - after being made redundant - he moved to France living in Nice and Castres - take up the position of editor for the 'Connexion', an expat paper.

He then moved back to Oxford, to live in Wolvercote, in 2014 and worked at The Observer until a few months before his death.

A keen Stoke City FC supporter, Mark spoke fluent French and enjoyed his time in France and his sister Karen said he was appalled at the outcome of the referendum earlier this year.

He died on October 1 of complications arising from cardiovascular disease, a condition which nervous system and touch sensations to progressively deteriorate.

Mark is survived by his sisters, Karen and Lorna, nephew, Thomas, and god-daughter, Roisin.