Roger Ryan, a former sports sub on the Daily Mail who remained a member of the SJA for more than 20 years while working in Hong Kong and Beijing, has died.
Ryan, who was 64, had been suffering from cancer.
Ryan had begun his career on local newspapers, with the Gravesend & Dartford Reporter, in 1977 becoming the youngest sports editor in the paper’s 100-year-plus history, before going on to editor the newspaper group’s Leader series.
By the late 1980s, Ryan was working on the sports desk at the Mail, where he was encouraged to join what was then the Sports Writers’ Association. He was also a member of the Football Writers’ Association.
He moved to the Far East in 1994, working variously for the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Standard, where he was sports editor for seven years, before working as a senior editor for the China Daily website.
His friend Shane Jarvis is hoping to arrange a wake at Roger Ryan’s favourite pub, the Jolly Drayman in his home town of Gravesend some time soon. Please contact Jarvis directly at shane.jarvis@mac.com if you are interested in attending.