Lifelong Derby County fan Edward Giles who wrote reports as the buildings shook dies aged 84

A FORMER Derby Telegraph sports journalist and lifelong Rams fan has died, aged 84.

Edward Giles worked as a sports reporter at the Derby Evening Telegraph in the 1940s.

And despite his newspaper career taking him all over the country, his wife, Joan, says Derby was always in his heart for one good reason – football.

She said: "He enjoyed his work very much. It was his whole life.

"Derby County was the first and last team that he supported. It was his lifelong love always."

Mr Giles was born in Cheltenham and moved to Mugginton at the age of two.

He moved to Castle Donington when he was nine and attended Loughborough Grammar School.

He then joined the Derby Telegraph in 1944, at the age of 16.

Mrs Giles, 86, who lives in Orsett, Essex, said: "I think in those days it was quite different. Young, mainly boys and occasionally girls, would join a newspaper and more or less would be office boys and girls.

"He was moved into the sports department because that's what he was interested in. It was always football he loved."

At the age of 18, he served his National Service with the RAF.

He then returned to the Derby Evening Telegraph three years later, staying there until 1956.

Mrs Giles said: "It was actually at the Telegraph where we met. I was a secretary to the general manager.

"He was very easygoing. In those days, when the machines started running and they were printing the papers, the whole building shook.

"This was when the building was in the centre of Derby.

"We had many friends together in the workplace. There was a cricket team and we enjoyed a good social life."

The couple married in 1951 and had two children, Christopher, now 55, and Rachel, 52.

Mr Giles became the deputy sports editor at the Bristol Evening Post from 1956 until 1970.

He then moved to Manchester, where he worked at the Daily Telegraph until 1987 before switching to the London offices, where he worked as the northern sports editor.

He retired in 1993 and died on December 27 of prostate cancer.

Mrs Giles said her late husband spent his retirement writing 10 books.

"They were always about football, including Derby County," she said.

"His 11th book is with the publisher at the moment.

"He struggled to get his final book finished but we hope it will be completed in a few weeks.

"I always said he was a born writer because he was very disciplined. He would write every afternoon, week days, Saturdays and Sundays.

"It was difficult sometimes to get him to come out shopping with me. He didn't like leaving what he was doing."

Mrs Giles said her husband was an avid Rams fan who dedicated his life to the team.

She said: "He would go and see them play when he could.

"His stepfather was George Richards, who was a professional footballer who played for Derby County during the war as well as playing for England.

"Since he was about 10 years old, he used to collect newspaper reports on sport.

"They were football reports and match results. That's what he did in those days because there would be no TVs.

"They were all beautifully stuck in exercise books.

"He was a happy man and extremely good-natured. He enjoyed his whole life."

Derby Telegraph columnist Anton Rippon said: "I first met Eddie when I was covering football for a national newspaper back in the 1980s.

"As soon as he knew I was from Derby, we became friends. He had so many happy memories of the town where he'd started his journalistic career on the Telegraph, and he was a great Rams fan.

"Until quite recently he'd still telephone or e-mail to get the latest news.

"He was a true newspaperman – one of the old school – and a thorough gentleman."