ALL life and death passed before the lens of news photographer Barrie Howell in the four decades he worked for the Advertiser.

Known to have a kind heart under a gruff no-nonsense exterior, he was a familiar face chronicling the life of Swindon and its residents

Everything from school photos and Diamond Weddings to dramatic incidents and court cases were captured in his camera.

His images often graced the front page. But once, 40 years ago on December 30, 1977, he didn’t just take pictures for the splash – he was part of it.

He and a reporter had been sent to cover the eviction of a farmer by the Moonies at Stanton Fitzwarren when a member of the cult hurled buckets of manure over him.

Barrie joined the staff in the late 1950s after working in a local photo studio and completing his national service in the RAF as an aircraft mechanic.

“His whole life was photography,” said son John. “He was always taking pictures.”

In fact the family still had more than 10,000 of his negatives and in his final years he had spent time carefully archiving them.

One job that had a profound effect on him was a visit to cover the famine in Ethiopia. None of his family knew how much until after his death when they discovered he had been donating to the charity Ethiopiaid ever since.

John said: “I can remember him saying he was walking and thought he saw a sack on the ground. But it was a baby’s body that had been covered up.”

He also told his family that the hotel he stayed in had the well off on one side but was next to a camp where the starving were struggling to survive.

His daughter Christinesaid: “He was a real character. He was very grumpy but everybody loved him.”

A lifelong member of the National Union of Journalists, he was the Swindon chapel’s welfare officer. “Nobody could understand that,” said John. “He was the most unsympathetic person you could meet. Nobody was ever ill.”

After being made redundant he carried on photography until his 70s when he had a pacemaker fitted. “It was his life. He didn’t have any other hobbies,” said John.

Deputy editor of the Swindon Advertiser, Michelle Tompkins, who worked with Barrie in the 1990s, remembered him fondly.

She said: “You wouldn’t say he was the most cheerful character in the newsroom but he was a character we all loved. He could be gruff on occasions but if he snapped at you he’d always then look at you with a glint in his eye which told you he wasn’t being entirely serious. And you always knew you’d get great pictures if Barrie was out on a job with you.”

A grandfather and great grandfather, Barrie, lost his second wife Christine in 2012. He died aged 84 at Moormead Nursing Home on Christmas Eve, surrounded by his family.

A funeral service will be held at Wroughton Parish Churchy on January 29 at 10am.