As senior reporter he covered the pub and restaurant sector first for Restaurant Business and Pub Business magazines. Later he helped the company create and launch a new magazine Eat Out, writing cover stories, news and features for it.
Although he had scaled back his workload in recent years, he continued to contribute regularly to both Eat Out and Cost Sector Catering, even after he was diagnosed with lung cancer early in 2014 and had to undergo an operation plus chemotherapy treatment over the course of the year.
Dewberry Redpoint group editor David Foad said: “Les was just one of the friendliest, most cheerful people I’ve ever met. He lit up the office when he came into work.
“He could also talk to anyone, which was part of the secret of his success in chasing a story. He had fantastic contacts in the pub and restaurant trade and wrote with real insight about the industry.
“He is sadly missed as a friend, colleague and true professional.”
After starting his career on the Sevenoaks News, he became deputy editor of the Sevenoaks Chronicle before opting out of journalism in 1973 for a spell running a pub in Otford, Kent.
He put that experience to good use when he decided to rejoin the media world and became the south east regional editor of the Morning Advertiser, which was then a national daily newspaper for the pub trade.
He held this role for 20 years before joining what was then Dewberry Boyes.
His last ‘official duty’ was to join work and industry colleagues at the Cost Sector Catering 21st anniversary party on December 10th at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel in London.
He died suddenly on December 19th and leaves a wife Marion and son Marcus. The funeral is being held on Wednesday, January 14th at St Mary’s Church in Hunton, where he lived.