John Arthur Childs

Left school at 14. Worked in a mill and later at Dobson and Barlow's foundry.

Enlisted in the Army on 9 September 1916 and served with 64th Training Battalion but was discharged in March 1917 as medically unfit and returned to the foundry.

Later worked at Walker's Tannery and then as Caretaker at Bolton Trustee Savings Bank (where he lived in a flat above the Bank) for 25 years from 1939 until retiring in September 1964.

Served with Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry 1924-28 and later joined the East Lancashire Cadet Brigade in the No 3 Company of the Boys Brigade connected to St Chad's Church, becoming their commander in 1938.

Served as a special constable in the Second World War.

Represented West Ward from 1946. Alderman 1958.

As Mayor inaugurated the enlargement of the Wayoh Reservoir at Turton on 19 September 1962.

Governor of Mount St Joseph School and a manager of St Edmund's Primary School and Eastbourne Grove Secondary School.

His wife, Ellen, was Mayoress.

(Ellen's sister, Florrie Haslam, was a leading member of the famous Dick Kerr Ladies football team which played nationally and internationally to huge crowds before the women's game was shut down by the Football Association in the early 1920s.)

He suffered a massive stroke after delivering a speech during a Council meeting. He was treated immediately at the scene by Alderman Dr John Richard Monks while an ambulance was summoned but died a few hours later in hospital.

His son, David Haslam Childs became Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham and is a leading writer, commentator and broadcaster on international affairs, particularly post-War Germany.

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