Well-known face at events across East Devon, photographer Colin Bowerman died at the weekend.

Sidmouth Herald: Colin Bowerman pictured in Maidenhead, in 1965. Picture: ContributedColin Bowerman pictured in Maidenhead, in 1965. Picture: Contributed (Image: Archant)

Former East Devon photographer, Colin Bowerman, died in hospital at Stoke Mandeville, Bucks, on Saturday, December 2.

Colin, 73, and his wife Diana; former Midweek Herald reporter, then news editor of the Sidmouth Herald, left Devon in July; after living in Colyton for 32 years, to live near Aylesbury, Bucks, to be closer to family.

Colin had recently started chemotherapy at Stoke Mandeville hospital for Myeloma Displasia.

He and his family moved to Devon in 1985 from Ampthill, Bedfordshire, after the newspaper he was working on in Hertfordshire closed.

He worked as a staff photographer on Pulman’s Weekly News for 10 years before going freelance, enabling him to undertake jobs for the Midweek Herald and Sidmouth Herald.

Photography was Colin’s life and he first began taking photographs while still at primary school.

Diana said: “Colin had been writing his life story for our daughters, Claire and Kate, as they had expressed interest in knowing more about their family history.

“In it Colin describes how, as a young boy, he took photos of everything he could, from holiday snaps to motorcycle scrambles and artistic pictures around his home town, Maidenhead.”

His ambition was to become a TV cameraman. However, in 1964, he became trainee photographer for the Maidenhead Advertiser, Berks, which is where he met his future wife in 1968.

He became chief photographer, but in the 1970s took on the challenge of working in London’s Fleet Street.

From there he moved to a Guildford-based news agency and his photographs were regularly used in national newspapers. Then, in 1984, he and his family moved to Colyton.

Diana said: “We had a wonderful home there, making many friends, but illness prompted us to move earlier this year. Between 1984 and 2012, when he retired, Colin must have photographed every event happening in East Devon.”

Colin’s funeral will take place at Chilterns Crematorium, Amersham, Bucks, on Monday, December 18 at 3.15pm.

Family flowers only but donations please to the Myeloma UK charity, c/o Surman & Horwood Funeral Service Ltd., 7 Buttermarket, Thame, OX9 3EW.