A journalist on top UK national newspapers who wrote about the Island he has family on has died.Peter Tory passed away on October 9 at the age of 73, but made dozens of visits to the Island to see his mother Pam Winfield and stepbrother Michael Winfield before his passing.He also wrote pieces about his experiences while on local shores back in his native England.Having first stepped on Bermuda soil to visit family and friends in 1962, Mr Tory developed a particular fondness of the Island, as illustrated in an interview in 1991 by Sean Dill when he said: “I first came here in 1962 to visit my mother, stepfather and Michael who lived in Somerset. I got caught by the Bermuda bug, and I stayed for a year.“I worked on a cabin cruiser called Moontide firstly as a deck hand and then as the captain. We took tourists out on cruises. It was the greatest year of my life.”He wrote columns for The Daily Express and Sunday Express, Daily Mirror and Daily Star, with his particular talent being his ability to conjure up a story out of nothing.He was educated at Malvern in the UK, where he showed promise as an actor and was a successful long-distance runner. He then went to the world famous acting school Rada, where his contemporaries included Susannah York and Tom Courtenay.After a spell in repertory, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, touring the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as a spear-carrier and enjoying a love affair with Julie Christie.Mr Tory was hired as a casual reporter by John Junor, editor of The Sunday Express, and moving from there to the William Hickey column on The Daily Express.His next berth was at The Daily Mirror, under Mike Molloy, where his taste for the fantastic was given full rein.He was a qualified pilot and frequently sported an old leather flying helmet when aloft in his beloved biplane, leading colleagues at the Mirror to call him “Biggles”.He subsequently moved to The Daily Star and then back to the Express, where he began the ‘Peter Tory’ page.However, after the death of his wife Gwen in 1997 he slowly succumbed to clinical depression, a condition that he had successfully concealed over the years. To the astonishment of his colleagues he decided to leave journalism, confessing that writing a column was agony and the thought of having to do it again made him physically ill.For some years after retiring Mr Tory divided his time between Bermuda and the United States before returning to England where he met Jacqueline Gouvier, a talented painter and art teacher.They lived together at Tetbury, Gloucestershire, where he found a peace and contentment that had eluded him for many years.His late father was Sir Geofroy Tory, ambassador to the Republic of Ireland and High Commissioner in Malaya. Mr Tory is survived by Ms Gouvier.