'Alan taught us all to take pictures the Sentinel way'

Tributes paid to popular former newspaper photographer after his death aged 94

- Andrew Lees

TRIBUTES have been paid to a former newspaper photographer who taught apprentices to take pictures 'the Sentinel way'.

Alan Vickerman, who has died aged 94, worked for the Sentinel for almost 40 years from the mid-1950s to the 1990s.

He covered many famous events, including Sir Stanley Matthews's testimonial, and took portraits of celebrities such as Shirley Bassey, Ken Dodd and Lord Lichfield.

Now family and former colleagues have paid tribute to Alan, below, who first came to the Potteries as a teenager after being evacuated from London during the Blitz.

Former deputy picture editor Horace Wetton described Alan as a 'friend and mentor' after he joined the Sentinel in the 1960s.

Horace, from Trentham, said: “When I started at the Sentinel he was already a photographer and a great mentor to me.