Daily Mail's Nigel Dempster, doyen of newspaper diarists, dies aged 65

Nigel Dempster, the Daily Mail's diarist for 30 years and one of Fleet Street's great legends, died yesterday at the age of 65.

During a career which spanned five decades, he produced a seemingly endless string of scoops, ranging from Harold Wilson's shock resignation to the news of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's engagement.

Until illness forced his retirement four years ago, he was one of the country's best-known newspaper journalists, loved and feared in equal measure by celebrities and competitors.

Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the Daily Mail, paid tribute to him yesterday, saying: "Nigel was the greatest gossip columnist of his generation.

"His fame became synonymous with the Daily Mail and he was required reading for the great and the good.

"Nigel's genius was his ability to tell the story while maintaining a friendly relationship. To me and my family he was more than just a great journalist, he was a true friend and his passing will be felt keenly."

Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers and editor of the Daily Mail, said: "Nigel was not only a treasured friend and a brilliant colleague, but also one of the best diary writers Fleet Street has ever known. His scoops were the stuff of legend and his zest for life inexhaustible.

"He liked nothing more than to deflate the egos of the idle rich and puncture the pomposity of the powerful. It made him one of the most talked-about figures Fleet Street has ever seen. We will all miss him."

Nigel, whose eponymous column ran in the Mail from 1973 to 2003, was married twice, first to Countess Emma Magdalen de Bendern, a daughter of Count John Gerard de Bendern, then to Lady Camilla Osborne, daughter of the 11th Duke of Leeds. Both marriages ended in divorce.

By his second marriage he had a stepdaughter, Emily Kate Godolphin Harris, and a daughter, Louisa Beatrix.

Nigel, born in India in 1941 and educated at Sherborne, worked briefly as a broker for Lloyd's of London before joining the Daily Express's William Hickey column in the 1960s, moving to the Mail in 1971.

During the 1970s he also contributed to Private Eye, inventing the Grovel column and mischievously giving the Royal Family nicknames which have stuck to this day, including Brenda for the Queen.

Outside Fleet Street, his great passion was racing. He owned or co-owned several horses.

In recent years, he had been suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy, a devastating brain disorder which finally claimed his life early yesterday at his home in Ham, South-West London.