Devoted father Mal was an Echo stalwart

Jan 29 2008 by Martin Wells, South Wales Echo

WITH his diminutive frame and impish smile, Mal Clements – known as Clemo to friends and colleagues – was a well-known and much-loved stalwart of the Echo backroom team.

As a pre-press operator, it was his job to process the pictures and adverts that pour into the company every day.

But his career with the company encompassed many other skills and in his 23 years at the Western Mail and Echo building in Havelock Street, Cardiff, Mal had also worked as a compositor, setting journalists’ copy into hot metal ‘slugs’ before the days of new technology, and as a colour planner.

He was most proud of this role and took great credit from handling all the colour processing involved in the Tall Ships supplement produced by The Western Mail in 1991.

His involvement with the Echo stretched back further, however, and he was fond of recalling how, as a schoolboy, he had won the Echo Paperboy of the Year award in 1960, complete with a cheque for £25 for delivering the most papers, around his home in Llandaff North, in one year.

After his first marriage ended in divorce, he married again 20 years ago. With Helen, he fathered five children, four boys and a girl, and was devoted to them.

A fanatical Cardiff City fan, he spent much of his spare time either playing, watching or coaching football.

He helped to run a junior school’s team in Trowbridge and in his younger days played for Gabalfa Grasshoppers and Pumble Villa.

Brother-in-law Paul Roberts said: “His nickname as a player was ‘Clogger’. He always said that if he couldn’t catch an opponent he’d kick ’em!”

Mal was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and fought a brave battle against it. He died at his Danescourt home on Saturday with his wife and oldest son Sam at his bedside. Said Helen: “He was a real family man and had been in the Boys’ Brigade.

“Their motto is Sure and Steadfast and that just about sums him up.”