My friend Alan Lyons, who has died from a lung condition aged 75 after suffering from COPD, was a Guardian news subeditor for around 37 years.
He was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and adopted at the age of three by Kath and Eddie Lyons. Eddie was with the Royal Corps of Army Music, and Kath was a caretaker. After travelling around with the Army, the family settled in York, where Alan attended Archbishop Holgate’s school, leaving at 18 to become a trainee journalist with Hull & Grimsby Newspapers, 1967-70.
