Stewart Woodcock, formerly of BBC Radio Birmingham and programme organiser at BBC Radio Oxford, has died.

He was 74 and had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for several years.

Mr Woodcock was appointed news editor at BBC Radio Birmingham in 1970 and was in the role when the Birmingham pub bombings took place in November, 1974. Six men were arrested and later convicted, but the convictions were overturned in 1991.

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Mr Woodcock remembered hearing a 'deep boom' in the distance, followed by a phone call telling him to get into the city. IRA bombs had exploded at the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town pubs in the Bull Ring Centre, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.

He played a significant role in the local, national and international media coverage of events that night.

Stewart Woodcock was born in October 1946 in Crook, County Durham. His father William (‘Bill’) from Witney worked at Pressed Steel Cowley. His mother Eleanor (‘Nellie’) came from County Durham. She worked in service at various posts including Eton College. After the war they moved to Witney where they had two children, Stewart and Barbara.

Stewart attended Witney Grammar School and, after leaving in 1963, secured his first job as a trainee at Midland Bank in Shipston upon Stour. But then he had a change of career as a trainee reporter with the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard. When the West Oxfordshire Standard was started, Stewart moved to Witney to join the newspaper.

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Later he joined Colin Fenton’s Oxford News Agency, which had been appointed to supply news to the newly opened BBC Radio Oxford in 1970. It was the beginning of a long association with the BBC.

In August 1972 he married Carolyn Harvey, in Wallingford.

He was sent on attachment for 6 months to BBC Radio Birmingham, based at Pebble Mill.

Shortly after his son Simon’s birth in 1982, Mr Woodcock was appointed Programme Organiser at BBC Radio Oxford and moved back to Oxfordshire, living in Black Bourton and then Witney.

In 1993 he left the BBC and started a media consultancy company called Media Matters.

In 1997 he met Jean Hodgson, who would be his partner until he died on April 9 this year. In 2011 Mr Woodcock was diagnosed with mouth cancer, which resulted in a major operation and radiotherapy.

Mr Woodcock is survived by Jean his partner of 25 years, his son Simon, and granddaughter Polly.