Mourners dressed up in attire to reflect the ‘Psychedelic 60s’ at a memorial service in Cranford, Northants, yesterday (7 September) for former Garden Trade News sub-editor and writer Bob Stonebridge, who has died, aged 68, after a long battle with cancer.
Bob, a keen saxophone player and an afficionado of 60s pop music, once met his hero, Beatles producer George Martin, on the steps of EMI’s Abbey Road Studios. He had the framed picture to prove it.
Bob, who started his journalistic career at the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, was recruited to GTN by the publication’s first editor, Brian Gibbons, and later earned a deserved editorship with its sister title, Pet Product Marketing, followed by many years as a successful freelance.
“He was a lovely guy and a fine journalist,” Brian told Xtra. “We will miss his good humour and philosophical outlook, even towards his unforgiving illness.”
Bob’s wife, Jane, a respected ceramic artist, died in January last year after battling a similar illness. The day of Bob’s death would have been their 45th wedding anniversary.
Above: Bob Stonebridge (second from right) with (left to right), former GTN advertisement manager David Cook, former GTN publisher Richard Hacker and GTN's first editor, Brian Gibbons, at one of their annual 'GTN Old Gits' get-togethers.
