Editor is remembered as brilliant journalist and devoted family man

SCOTT Harrison, who has died aged 60, has been remembered by colleagues and friends as a brilliant, respected, dedicated and fair journalist and editor who was passionate about the West-country and local journalism.

- by OLIVIER VERGNAULT AND PHIL WISDOM

The editor of Reach Plc's seven weekly newspapers in Devon and Cornwall, including the Herald Express, Express & Echo, North Devon Journal and Mid Devon Gazette, he died on Sunday, May 4, due to complications of an illness.

Born on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, Scott attended Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, where he studied politics and became involved with hospital radio to help fund his education.

His first newspaper was The Record in Sherbrooke, Quebec; he then joined a weekly in Oshawa, Ontario, before moving to the Peace Arch News in White Rock, British Columbia, and then the Castlegar News in Castlegar, BC.

He moved to the UK in 1997 because his wife, who was British, wanted to be closer to her family. Their son McKenzie, 29, was born in Canada and his brother Kellan, 26, in Britain.

One of the first stories he covered in the UK - he was then working in Norwich - was the death of Princess Diana.

The family later moved to Cornwall, first to Tremar and then Higherland near Stoke Climsland. Scott joined what was then Westcountry Publications in Plymouth, publisher of the Western Morning News and the Plymouth Evening Herald, working as a sub-editor and on the newsdesk before becoming news editor of the WMN.

He then took on the editorship of the Cornish Guardian and in 2018 assumed overall responsibility for seven weeklies across Devon and Cornwall.