Sir Albert [Larry] Lamb was born in Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire, the son of a miner.
He took the name Larry from the character of Larry the Lamb in the BBC Radio Toytown series.
He was educated at Rastrick Grammar School. He left at the age of 16 in 1945, and went to work at Brighouse Town Hall where he was an active union worker and became union branch secretary.
He worked at the Brighouse Echo.
He edited the union magazine then went on to regional newspapers before reaching national titles such as The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail.
He edited The Sun newspaper from 1971 to 1981 – where he introduced the Page Three Pin-Up feature and turned the newspaper from a broadsheet into Britain's most popular newspaper, famous for its punning headlines and jingoism, and increasing the paper's circulation five-fold to more than four million.
He became Editorial Director of Rupert Murdoch's News International, and Deputy Chairman of News Group from 1979 to 1981.
He spent a brief spell editing the Western Mail in Perth, Australia, before returning to edit Murdoch's The Australian from 1982 to 1983.
He returned to Britain and edited The Daily Express newspaper from 1983 to 1986. At The Daily Express, he was excluded from the Labour Party annual conference when he used a scoop photograph of a High Court writ being served on miners' leader Arthur Scargill in the conference hall.
He was knighted in 1980 – recommended by Margaret Thatcher in recognition of The Sun's support for the Tory Party.
Sir Larry is survived by his wife, Joan, and children Richard, Nicholas, and Jacqueline
See Sam Arnold Brown
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