NEWSPAPERDOM lost one of its most colourful characters this week with the retirement from the scene of the redoubtable Steve Peacock.

The genial old-school operator, whose sharp and indefatigable news sense has benefited his South Hams beat for a generation, switched off his computer as he met his Totnes Times deadline for the very last time.

‘Phew!’ declared the worded-out warrior whose storytelling career began in an explosive fashion.

He was just settling in to his scribbling life as a junior reporter in the comparative news backwater which was Aldershot in 1969 when the IRA decided to launch its murderous campaign of terror on the British mainland by blowing up the nearby Parachute Regiment’s officers’ mess, killing six people.

Steve, born and almost educated in nearby Farnborough, obviously impressed his seniors as he rose to the rank of the Aldershot News’ Chief Reporter.

But like all half-decent gentlemen of the press he soon recognised that West was Best – and in 1980 headed straight for the Kingsbridge Gazette whither he toiled for a decade before hooking up with the Herald Express.

He is remembered fondly by all at the Torquay-based evening paper before it lost its gloss in 2011, switching to a weekly and dispensing with Steve’s widely appreciated skills as a boundless teller of rattling yarns.

One ex-colleague said of Our Man in Totnes: ‘He was not only a good reporter – but he was good fun too. He kept the copy coming all the time - and it was always crisp and fresh. Steve was much missed.’

He then alluded to a memorable piece Steve had penned on the virtues of wanting to give up smoking, complete with its excruciating ‘literal’ which even today cannot be re-published in polite circles.

Steve’s fierce attachment to a keen work ethic continued unabated at the Dartmouth Chronicle and later at his final arena of panic, the lucky Totnes Times.

Steve, possibly 66, said as he filed his last piece: ‘It’s time to go. I’ve reached a stage in my life where I knock a few years off my age. It was not so long ago that I was doing the opposite.’

A former boss, Devon and Cornwall Newspapers’ regional director Sandra Perraton, said of the breathless cataloguer of provincial life: ‘It was such a bonus for us to acquire Steve’s services for the all-too-brief period he was with us. We could not believe our luck. He was a real treasure, a true Special Correspondent.’

She added: ‘There cannot be anyone in this profession who could contradict such a comment. All we can do now his wish him a joyful retirement. It is so richly deserved.’