During World War II, young Guy Heming and a brother were evacuated from London after a very close shave in which they woke to find the house destroyed around them and they had slept through it.
Patricia said the two youngsters were indignant as they had "missed the drama but pleased it was not a direct hit".
Mr Heming attended Cranbrook School and later attended Sandhurst Military Academy.
He went on to serve with the British Army in Korea and Malaya then went to Kenya in the mid-1950s and served in the Kenyan Police Force leading a unit of askaris during the Mau Mau uprising.
Returning to Britain, he continued his military contact by serving with a Territorial Army Unit.
Later in New Zealand, Mr Heming carried on this theme, serving with the Territorials in New Zealand.
He married Isobel Beechey and had their first child (a son) in England before relocating to Auckland (Isobel's home town) where they had twin daughters, finally settling in Wellington where their last daughter was born.
Moving to Carterton in the early 1970s, Mr Heming started work as the South Wairarapa correspondent for the Wairarapa Times-Age.
He relished the challenge of the job and travelled South Wairarapa with his camera round his neck, pencil and pad at the ready and his ever-present pipe either in hand or tucked down his sock.
Mr Heming often worked late into the night after council meetings or some other event and would type up his reports for the paper on his typewriter using carbon paper to ensure there were always two copies.
He would put the stories into an envelope and his children would take it across the road to give to the bus driver who was met in Masterton by someone from the paper.
After being out late one winter's night, Mr Heming noticed the family's pet lamb was shivering with cold, he brought the lamb inside to warm up by the heater while typing up a story for the paper. He forgot the lamb until he smelled burning wool and the lamb went outside again and sported singed wool for some time.
As a reporter, Mr Heming had many adventures. He was taken for a ride in a Skyhawk fighter jet over Manawatu and Wairarapa, rode in a Jet Sprinter on the Ruamahanga Diversion, and took a hot air balloon to capture the New Year's rising sun.
Mr Heming wrote a book on the history of the Wairarapa Agricultural and Pastoral Society. His family said he did that by working throughout the night so he wouldn't be disturbed .
Mr Heming was involved in community work firstly through Jaycees in Eastbourne and then Rotary in Carterton. He served as a people's warden at St Mark's Church in Carterton.
Mr Heming played golf and, as age started to slow him down, he used a buggy which he had frowned upon in earlier years. One of his daughters visited and was told by a playing partner to stand behind him when he took each shot, when asked why she was told "because he couldn't see well enough to know where the ball landed".
.He was an avid philatelist, collecting stamps and was a member of a stamp club right up until his death.
In 1981, after his children had left home, Mr Heming moved to Queensland. He worked as a reporter and then sub-editor for the Bundaberg News Mail.
Before going to Australia, Mr Heming had been a scotch whisky drinker but on finding Bundaberg rum was a local product he thought he should support the local economy, which his family fondly remember him doing so "single handedly".
Mr Heming is survived by a son and three daughters.
