Telegraph editor Chris Evans said: "Clare Hollingworth was a remarkable journalist, an inspiration to all reporters but in particular to subsequent generations of women foreign correspondents.

"She will always be revered by all of us at The Telegraph. Our sympathies to her friends and family."

Charles Moore, the editor of the Daily Telegraph said Hollingworth was one the Telegraph's most distinguished servants and an inspiration to all foreign correspondents and all women in journalism.

"She combined a professional determination to dig out world news with a practical compassion for the sufferings of humanity.

"During the Cold War, when China was a closed society under Mao, Claire was highly unusual among journalists in having the contacts that opened up some of that world to her, and so to the readers.

Kate Adie, the veteran BBC war correspondent said Hollingworth was "a pioneer" for women in journalism who did not stop after her great scoop, when on to have a "a lifetime of journalism, full of adventure, good stories and terrific attention to detail and fact.

"She was a role model, without being aware of it. In the sense that she loved the job and had a terrific zest for journalism right to the end of her life. In her 90s she followed the news. I met her. Several times. When she was in her 70s and still with an eye on China and I remember going to the Foreign Correspondents club in Hong Kong and someone saying 'there's a legend upstairs'.

Robert Fox, the Telegraph's former defence and chief foreign correspondent, said described Hollingworth as "amazing and steadfast".

"After the Falklands I remember she took me to lunch and asked me about the state of British Army. She used to take the trouble to come over to me, she was always interested and took a great deal of interest in younger reporters. She never put on side, and she regarded old and young in the whole business as kindred spirits."

The BBC's John Simpson first met Clare in 1978, travelling with her in Romania, Serbia, Turkey and other places. He described her as a journalist who people trusted, and she could go back to people.

"She interviewed the Shah of Iran in 1941, just after we had put him on the throne, and she was the only person he would speak to before he died - because he trusted her. I consider her one the finest journalists of the 20th Century, along with Martha Gellhorn and one or two others. I shall miss her memory more than I can say."