John Higham
Chairman of Aspull Urban District Council 1942/43, 1949/50, 1955/56, 1963/64
Elected Chair 18 April 1942
Elected Chair 20 May 1949
Elected Chair 2 May 1955
Elected Chair 23 May 1963
b 1897 Aspull
Parents: Edward Higham, Grocer, and Mary Alice (formerly Seddon)
m 1924 Martha Ellen daughter of Peter Spencer, coal miner, and Ann.
children: Three sons
d 1975 at Haigh, Martha died in 1997 at Southport
Born in 1897 son of Edward Higham, grocer, and Mary Alice, daughter of John Seddon, collier. John was the eldest in a family of four boys and three girls, one son died in infancy.
John attended Aspull Church of England Primary School and served in the Great War.
In 1919 he started his own fruit and vegetable business in Aspull and later managed a shop in Liverpool. From 1924 he ran a wholesale confectioner’s business in Aspull.
In 1924 he married Martha Ellen, daughter of Peter Spencer, coal miner, and Ann. They had three sons all of whom became teachers.
At a time when there was 90% unemployment in Aspull John became passionately interested in local government and was first elected to Aspull Urban District Council in 1933 for the Labour Party – his one aim being to improve the quality of life.
He was elected Chairman of the Council on four separate occasions and in the 1950s also became a member of Lancashire County Council and a County Magistrate. He was the first Chairman to wear the Chain of Office presented to the Council by the Earl of Crawford in 1942.
In 1970 he was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List.
Following reorganisation of Local Government in 1974 he represented Standish with Langtree Ward on Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council and represented the Borough on the Greater Manchester County Council.
He was also vice-chairman of Westhoughton Divisional Labour Party, treasurer of Aspull Labour Club and a member of the Regional Labour Party.
In March 1975 he resigned from County Council owing to ill health and in 1979 he died at his home in Toddington Lane, Haigh. Following a funeral service at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Aspull he was buried in Haigh St David’s Churchyard. His wife, Martha, died at Southport in 1997 and was buried with her husband.
Author: Peter Walker
Sources:
Aspull Urban District Council Minutes
Wigan Observer 9 & 16 May 1942 p3b Appointed chair (Photo)
Wigan Observer 9 April 1963 p4c(e) Appointed chair
Wigan Observer 2 January 1970 P1 Awarded MBE in New Year’s Honours
Post & Chronicle 24 March 1975 Cuttings Book 8 p200 Quits Ill Health
Wigan Observer 11 May 1979 Cuttings Book 9 p325 (Photo) Death aged 82
National School Admission Registers & Log-books 1870-1914 (Findmypast.co.uk – free at Museum of Wigan Life)
Ancestry.Com (Free at Museum of Wigan Life)
Findmypast.co.uk (Subscription required)