Arnold Hadwin OBE, editor of the Telegraph & Argus from 1973-1984, has died at the age of 82.

The former Royal Marine Commando came to national prominence in 1976 for a stinging editorial about the National Front. The right-wing group had accused the paper of bias.

Eight paragraphs of his long editorial on May 7 started with the phrase “We are biased”. In the ninth he wrote: “Most of all, we are biased against a political philosophy derived from the degenerate, diseased and disgusting minds of Hitler and his sycophants.”

Martin Wainwright, northern editor of The Guardian, was at the T&A when Arnold Hadwin arrived in Bradford via the Northern Echo, Darlington Evening Despatch and Oxford Mail.

He said: “Like all journalists, he enjoyed the excitement of the deadline and the scoop, but he was more interested in the underlying issues and their long-term implications.

“His active involvement in civic affairs, engagement with all Bradford’s communities and encouragement of ethnic minority coverage, and recruitment to the paper’s staff, were also notable and thoroughly good for the city. ”

Mohammed Ajeeb, a former Lord Mayor of Bradford and housing aid worker, said: “He was very positive in his approach to promoting better understanding between different groups in the city.

“He was a very good editor of the local paper but a fair human being who wanted to see the city prosper in every way.”

Mr Hadwin, who went on to be editor of the Lincolnshire Standard Group of newspapers in 1984, said this about the job of a local newspaper: “A local newspaper should take care of its readers – canalising their aspirations, making more articulate their demands, expanding their horizons.”

Mr Hadwin lived alone in Langworth, Lincoln-shire, following the death of his wife, Edna, several years ago.

He leaves two daughters, Sarah and Julie, and two grandchildren.

His funeral is expected to take place next week.