Eileen Eldridge, former reporter and editor of the Monmouthshire Beacon passed away in her sleep last week at the age of 57.

Eileen started as a reporter on the Abergavenny Gazette before being taken on by the South Wales Argus.

Eileen was soon appointed as the Monmouth reporter for the newspaper and she worked out of their office in Church Street and at 109 Monnow Street for a number of years.

She then became a reporter at the Beacon when Ken Goodwin was editor and took over after he retired in September 1999. Eileen and Ken are pictured above.

She remained in the post until April 2001 and was fondly remembered as a hard working and dedicated member of staff.

In a tribute to his former colleague, Mr Goodwin said: "Eileen Eldridge was a thoroughly competent journalist who took over as editor when I retired in 1999.

"She came to the Beacon as my understudy and had my complete trust as a fully competent professional who could be relied on to run the paper competently."

Desmond Pugh, who was the photographer for the Beacon in her days as editor, remembers her well.

"It was she who suggested we move into the digital era, away from the time-honoured way of producing prints from negatives and the Beacon has used digital cameras for all its work ever since," he said.

"She was an inspirational reporter, a hard-working editor and a good friend to me personally, she loved her dogs and was very proud of her son, Robbie, and his achievements."

"Eileen was very helpful in helping new reporters learn the Monmouth area," said Andy Sherwill, former Free Press reporter.

"At my first Monmouth Town Council meeting she helped me by writing out a seating plan of who was who and sitting where. This was very useful to a novice scribe.

"And despite working in opposition a year or two later, we had to work as a reporting team to cover a major event like the visit of William Hague, who at the time was leader of the Conservative party, and spoke to a large crowd in Agincourt Square, an event that created a media frenzy of television crews and national newspaper photographers.

"Another occasion where she displayed her true professionalism was when I was covering local justice at a magistrates court for the first time and she explained the etiquette surrounding court reporting.

"I know Eileen has not been in the area for sometime, but I am sure that those who do remember her will always say that her journalism was always honest and fair, the basics of being a good local reporter."