Lionel Cowin, a long-time editor and director of Isle of Man Newspapers, has died.

He was 73 and was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in early April of this year.

Highly respected, Lionel was a mainstay of the local newspaper industry in the latter decades of the last century and was editor of the Isle of Man Courier for more than 30 years, having joined the trade as a junior reporter with the Isle of Man Examiner in the early 1960s. He took over as editor of the then Ramsey Courier in 1973, after a period working in Hertfordshire, and played a major role at the centre of an expanding group under Ramsey-based businessman John J. Christian.

For a while, this included the island’s only Sunday publication, Sunday News, and also took over the established Mona’s Herald in Ridgeway Street, Douglas. In 1987, following the 13-week strike that brought an end to rival H. L. Dor’s Isle of Man Examiner/Weekly Times business in Hill Street, Lionel took over the editorship of the Examiner when it was bought by Halifax Courier.

The Yorkshire company had bought the original Ramsey Courier and Mona’s Herald titles in the late 1970s and turned the Courier into an all-island free delivery publication.

The rapidly-expanding business, which then became known as Isle of Man Newspapers, moved into the current purpose-built site on Peel Road, Douglas, early in 1993 and soon after bought the Manx Independent to form the current line-up of Isle of Man Courier, Isle of Man Examiner and Manx Independent.

Lionel was editor of all three titles for the next 12 years until he retired in 2005.

He had a huge passion for cycling and was Isle of Man team manager at several Island and Commonwealth Games in the 1980s and 1990s.

An avid and accomplished rider himself, Lionel cycled up until shortly before his diagnosis in the Alicante, Spain, where he and wife Jean had spent the last three winters, making many friends of various nationalities.

After being air ambulanced home to the island, he spent seven weeks in Liverpool Royal Hospital before returning home during TT Week.

In remission, he was fit enough to get around and visit friends and events in the island over the next six weeks before returning to Liverpool for further treatment at the beginning of this month.

Lionel’s son, Richard, confirmed on Sunday that his father had passed away in the early hours of the morning. He said that he had conquered the leukaemia finally, but unfortunately he got an infection, which he couldn’t fight off.

The management and staff of Isle of Man Newspapers convey sincere condolences to Lionel’s wife, Jean, son Richard, daughter Emma and their respective families.

At the time of going to press, no funeral arrangements had been announced.