The most important part of the Chronicle? Our lovely readers

Nov 27 2008 By Daniel Lyons

There's been nothing more important to the Chronicle during our 150-year history than our readers.

Here, we meet a few of the people whose achievements, or those of loved ones, have been featured in our pages and find out what it means to them.

Brian Miles is a true Chronicle fan.

He's been reading the paper since the age of 15 and featured in its pages four times.

Now he is joining us in our celebrations by making it a fifth as he shares his recollections.

Mr Miles, 72, made his first appearance in the paper in August 1999, when caught on the High Street by one of our reporters wanting his opinion on whether Hounslow should have a Princess Diana memorial.

Mr Miles, of Estridge Close, Hounslow, said: "I was very proud when I was in the paper, I have been reading it all my life.

"It's a great paper. It has brilliant local news as well as fantastic sports coverage."

He featured again soon after, in 2002, this time with his wife, as the couple were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary on the same date as the Queen and Prince Philip.

On his third appearance, in 2004, Mr Miles appeared on the back pages when current sports editor Tim Street paid a visit to his home to interview him as a loyal supporter of Hounslow Football Club from the age of five.

"I have lived in Hounslow all my life," said Brian. "I remember when the paper was called the Middlesex Chronicle and the offices were located round the back of Holloway Street.

"I've been in the paper so many times I'm starting to lose count."

Our avid reader's most recent feature was in 2005, when we recognised his 70th birthday.

When Coreen Holmes made the front page of the Chronicle more than 20 years ago, it was an appearance tinged with sadness.

She had bought a £3,500 defibrillator for Isleworth Ambulance Crew in a bid to save lives nine months after her brother Royce Bradley died suddenly of a heart attack, in October 1987.

The 79-year-old, of Lyncroft Gardens, Hounslow, said: "Royce had always been very healthy and was up the ladder painting his house shortly before his first heart attack, a few days before my husband found him dead on the bath-room floor.

"The defibrillator wouldn't have saved his life but I was determined to help other people."

Coreen, who worked at Clifford's Dairy in Station Road, Hounslow, for many years, next featured on our pages in 1996 - an altogether happier occasion.

The grandmother-of-two was pictured tucking into a meal cooked by a Hampton Court chef after winning a Valentine's Day competition.

Feltham Arts Association founder Vera Scott has boxes and boxes of stories clipped from the pages of the Chronicle.

One of the most precious is a story from their very first event - a Christmas Merrie in December 1987. She said: "I remember we were so excited to be in the paper.I thought it was just lovely.

"After that we were in the paper quite regularly and we'd always rush to the shops after events to see which pictures had gone in.

"The paper has helped us so much with publicity over the years and everyone who takes part loves seeing their photos."

Vera's favourite headline topped a piece about a wildlife-themed event in the early 1990s, it was titled, 'Go Wild with Vera!'

"I thought it was hilarious when I saw what they'd put," she said.

Every Chronicle reader seems to have a memory of someone theyknow making the paper's news pages.

And for avid reader Dorothy Rollinson, 78, it's the clipping she keeps of her late husband driving a tank for charity that makes her smile.

Barry Rollinson, who was 79 at the time, was featured in the Chronicle when he visited Salisbury, in 1995, to drive a tank in aid of a motor neurone disease charity under the headline 'Veteran takes tank challenge for charity'.

Mrs Rollinson, of Tivoli Road, Hounslow, said: "I read the paper cover to cover every week. It has great news pieces and I can relate to a lot of things that your historian Eddie Menday writes, as I have lived in the area my whole life.

"I used to live in this same house as a child and we had a bomb shelter in the garden, as most people did then. We would go down there to sleep every night and I'm sure my father would have probably taken a copy of the Chronicle down there with us.

"We've always had it in our home for as long as I can remember."

During the Second World War, Mr Rollinson, who died in 2002, was a POW For three and a half years in a stalag in Germany.