Tributes to journalist near Banbury who became a globally respected figure in the world of motorsport

Mark Wilford, a journalist who became a globally respected figure in the world of motorsport, has died at the age of 57.

Mark - Wilf to his colleagues - was the public relations and communications manager for the World Rally Championship Promoter at the time of his death on September 1.

Described as a motorsport ‘media guru’, Mark - from Middleton Cheney - joined WRC Promoter in 2013 after 16 years managing Ford motorsport media services, specialising in the World Rally Championship.

Before then he was a news and sports journalist, beginning his career at the Beverley Guardian, later moving to the Bridlington

Free Press where he worked with editor Debbie Tweedie and Nicola Bell, who was later to become his wife.

This was the start of a working relationship which spanned many years with all three eventually moving south to EMAP titles.

Mark became deputy editor/sports editor at the Buckingham Advertiser later moving to take up the post of sports editor at The

Bucks Herald in Aylesbury where he was reunited with Debbie who was editor.

Debbie said: "I worked with Mark during some challenging and changing times in newspapers.

“He was a talented journalist with a passion for sport who cared deeply about the role of local newspapers.

“He was a loyal and totally reliable member of my teams; it was a privilege to work with him and be his friend, a sentiment shared by everyone who ever worked alongside him.”

David Evans, senior staff writer with independent rally news site dirtfish.com, said: “Mark Wilford was somebody I’d known my entire

time working in motorsport.

“Without question, he was the most upstanding, honest and decent person in our industry.

“And when I say our industry, I mean journalism. At his heart, Wilf was and always would be a journalist.”

In July Mark and Nicola attended a reunion of the Banbury Guardian, where Nicola was deputy editor in the 1990s, and they met up with many former colleagues from old EMAP titles.

Mark was a great fan of all sport but he was a lifelong, passionate supporter of Darlington FC.

Mark died at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital after contracting an infection during chemotherapy.

Mark’s funeral is at All Saint’s Church, Middleton Cheney, at noon on October 7, a date chosen by Nicola and daughters Kate and Annie to allow colleagues time to get home from Rally New Zealand.

The service will also be live-streamed so his many colleagues and friends around the world can say goodbye.