Results tagged “Pat O'Neill” from Formby Times - Past

TIMES PAST this week caught up Pat O'Neill, who edited the Formby Times in the halcyon days of the 1950s.

Pat started work for the paper in 1952, in 'an attic above an office in the village.' He was already an experienced journalist, having working as a freelance in London and across the south coast of England.

Pat was asked by Major Willie Stephenson, who owned the Southport Visiter, to develop the Formby Times into a successful community newspaper.

The venture began in 'an attic above an office in the village,' but the title soon moved to a new office at 2 School Lane, with a counter lady, four reporters, an advertising rep and a circulation of nearly 4,000.

He remembers the 12 Conservative Party councillors on the Formby Urban District Council, and the day the Queen Mother visited the village. And he spent time advising local people on how to set up the community groups that today contribute so much to village life.

In the 1960s, the Daily Post bought out Major Stephenson.

Pat left the title in 1968, and spent the next year working for the Kirkby Reporter. He emigrated to Australia in 1969, and spent the next stage of his career working for The Herald in Melbourne, until 'it was axed by Rupert Murdoch.' Today, the 81-year-old is living out his retirement in Victoria, Australia.

Do you remember Pat O'Neill and the Formby Times in the 1950s?

TIMES Past has become aware of a wonderful reunion between the founding members of the civic society and a former editor of the Formby Times.
Pat O'Neill, who edited the paper in the 1950s, recently chanced upon the Formby Civic Society's website and e-mailed Dr Reg Yorke and his wife Barbara.
Mr O'Neill remembered the Yorke's well, and the series of meetings that led to birth of Formby Civic Society. He also recalls Muriel Sibley and her sketches of village life.
And the Yorke's remember Mr O'Neill, particularly his attendance at one meeting in their Brows Lane home in the late '50s, when they "reformed the Formby Labour Party."
The former editor also recounts the Royal Visit of 1956, when the Queen Mum presented a new set of colours to the Manchester Regiment at Harington Barracks.
And it seems this special occasion was captured on film. Staff from the University of Liverpool arrived on the scene with a movie camera, and the fascinating footage was screened in Formby later that year.
If any of our readers have information on that film, please get in touch.