A newsagent who first started out in the shop-keeping business more than half a century ago has died aged 81.

Myles Ivor Earle, who died on September 16, ran M I Earle’s on Newport Street in Old Town with his wife Rosemary.

He was famed in Old Town for his cheeky and quirky nature and for his way of connecting with customers.

His first experience of the shop-keeping business was as a manager of a sweet shop with his first wife on Drove Road in 1965.

He set up the newsagent’s in 1980 and at one point, he owned two of them.

His wife Rosemary, who still runs the business, said: “He was happy-go-lucky, and very good behind the counter.

“His philosophy was to be as inclusive as possible. He encouraged all staff to engage with customers and make them welcome because he said you might be the only person they speak to today.

“He told us to use their names because a lot of older customers live by themselves and it is the role of a small business in a community to connect with people.

“Covid gave him a new lease of life. He came out and would pull people’s legs about not recognising them with their masks and it lifted the mood for a lot of people who had been cowed by Covid.

“He loved jazz and would play music in the shop and stand here pretending to be Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker.

“Customers thought it was hilarious and he just enjoyed himself.”

Myles was born in East London in 1939 and spent the war years sleeping in shelters and playing on bomb sites before moving to Swindon with his parents aged 11.

He went to Headlands School and the headmaster told his mother: “He’s not a wicked boy, he’s just rather alternative and does his own thing.”

He once bunked off school to attend the opening of a jazz club in London with some friends.

Unfortunately, the secret adventure was rumbled by the headmaster when he saw the boys on TV.

Rosemary and Myles met at a party after he first hit it off with her friend.

But when her friend moved up north and the relationship ended, Myles and Rosemary’s friendship became a romance.

They married in 1975 and their daughter was born in 1981.