Photographer John Caston, whose images went around the world, has died aged 79.

His sure touch with a camera meant that pictures he took, ranging from fires to snow scenes, were seen by people in places from Austria to Australia.

He was based for much of his long career in Brighton and was immensely proud of the town.

Born in Coulsdon, he grew up in the Surrey area before serving in the RAF during the war, undertaking many reconnaissance missions.

He then worked on the Croydon Times and also undertook freelance work for many of the national newspapers.

Mr Caston joined the Argus as chief photographer in 1964 and, soon afterwards, became picture editor, a post he held until his retirement in 1980.

One of his best-known sets of pictures was of the huge fire that destroyed Hove Town Hall in January 1966.

He was also widely acclaimed for pictures of a cat tumbling from the top of the old Dials Congregational Church in Dyke Road, Brighton.

Amazingly, the cat survived a drop of more than 100 feet but died later from shock.

Mr Caston took over the Kensington pub, in Kensington Gardens, Brighton, in 1969 and remained landlord until 1985.

The pub was in poor condition in the early days but with the help of his wife, Joyce, he restored it and made it hugely popular.

After a spell working for a computer firm, he retired completely, but never stopped snapping pictures, even when his eyesight began to fail in later years.

Mr Caston, who lived at Dale View, Hangleton, died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, of bronchial pneumonia.

He was married to Joyce for more than 50 years and they had three children and four grandchildren.

Mrs Caston said: "He lived for the paper and he loved his job. A lot of his pictures went round the world."

Photographer Tony Tree, who worked with him at the Argus, said:

"I always found John to be one of those amazing picture editors from the old school who never miss a thing.

"He knew a good picture.

"Whatever the story in Sussex, John always had a sniff of it from one of his network of contacts. He knew everybody."

The funeral service will be held at the Downs Crematorium in Brighton on Monday, at noon. Friends are invited to the Hove Conservative Club afterwards.