A former editor of the Telegraph & Argus and a man at the centre of a major dispute in British newspaper history has died.

Born in Shipley in 1934, Peter Harland was in his early 30s when he became Editor-in-Chief of the T&A. And he later played a key role in an industrial dispute over the introduction of new computer typesetting technology at The Times newspaper group.

During his editorship of the T&A, from 1967 to 1973, Mr Harland established a reputation as a campaigner with a love of exposes. After leading a strong fight over anomalies in the Criminal Justice Act, he was Campaigning Journalist of the Year in 1968.

He also continued a tradition of giving the city's Muslim population a voice which included a column in Urdu.

While at the T&A he held posts in the city with organisations such as the Bradford Area Development Association and as governor of Friends of Cartwright Hall, Bradford.

He was also president of the Guild of British Newspaper Editors. He then moved to London to join The Sunday Times, later taking charge of setting up new computer typesetting technology, which saw him clash with print unions.

Son of the Archdeacon of Rochester, Mr Harland was a keen churchgoer and during the 11-month shut-down of The Times and The Sunday Times in 1979 his faith came into its own as he tried to negotiate between the two sides.

The papers eventually re-opened without the new technology - only for subsequent owner Rupert Murdoch to circumvent the unions by transferring production from Fleet Street to Wapping after Mr Harland had left.

Mr Harland was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Denstone College in Staffordshire. He read history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he edited the student paper Varsity in his final year.

He took up his first editorship at the age of 31 at The Yorkshire Evening Press in York. But he was sacked following a critical editorial, giving him the opportunity to take over at the helm of the T&A a week later.

In 1981 he took early retirement from his post as Managing Editor (New Technology) at Times Newspapers and spent time setting up papers in Sri Lanka.

After his return he founded Bookwatch, a company to track book sales, used to compile weekly best-sellers lists.

He lived in Oxford and leaves a wife, Jennifer Harland, originally from Menston, and a son and a daughter.

Ray Fitzwalter, who was a young reporter under Mr Harland at the T&A, said: "I would describe him as a brilliant inspirational editor, witnessed by the fact we won four national awards in five years.

"The time we worked in Bradford together was a very dramatic period and it demonstrated what a tremendous news area the city was."

Mr Fitzwalter was Young Journalist of the Year in 1969, became editor and executive producer of Granada's World in Action.