JohnBEASLEYHe was born Edmund Beasley in 1929 in the East End of London, the second of four children. His father was a dock labourer.
The family broke up when he was six. The children were sent to orphanages and for much of the time they were in different homes with no contact. However, he and his elder brother George managed to keep in touch.
He picked up the nickname John at school, which stuck with him throughout his life, as there were three boys in his class named Edmund.
After leaving school, without any formal qualifications, John's first job was in a laundry, filling the enormous drums with dirty clothes.
During this time, he played football in a local team where he was seen by a scout from Tottenham Hotspur and joined their youth squad. Football was his life for a time before he was called up for National Service.
John later went to work in a factory that made spectacle lenses. While working there he met Geoffrey Mills, an ophthalmic optician who encouraged him to get out of the "dead-end job". After several years of studying, mainly at evening classes after a full days work, he qualified as an optician and worked in a practice at Edgware.
He joined the Labour Party in Islington North.
By 1956, he was a councillor and soon became chairman of the St Pancreas local health committee and a member of the Area Health Authority. He was later on the council in the London Borough of Brent.
In 1961, John met his future wife, Ann, at a Fabian Society weekend school studying local government. They married later that year and soon their sons Roger and Alan were born.
The family often went to Rochdale for holidays as Ann missed the hills of her native Halifax and her friend Jean Orton lived there.
In 1974, they left London and came to Rochdale. John took over Blackhams opticians on Drake Street, which became Blackham and Beasley.
When the boys were young, they did not see much of their dad because so often it was a case of straight from work to a meeting, either of the Labour Party or local groups such as tenants' associations, voluntary organisations and community centres. Therefore, holidays were an important part of family life. Most of these were walking holidays.
By the late 1970s, the Rochdale Labour party headquarters was very run down. With others, John started fundraising to get money for a new one. By 1982, there was enough money to buy a building on Oldham Road to become the new Labour party headquarters.
In 1980, he was elected councillor in Castleton, where he served for four years.
When a by-election was called in Central and Falinge in 1985, a strong Liberal ward, a planned holiday was cancelled to allow John to fight the election. People said he had no chance of winning but through determination, organisation and hard work, he proved them wrong.
John retired as an optician in 1991 as the proposed tramlines were due to go through his optician's practice. As it turned out, these weren't built until years later.
He became Mayor in 1994. This was the year of several anniversary celebrations in Rochdale's history, including the 150 year anniversary since the first Co-op shop opened on Toad Lane, and also the Queen's visit to Rochdale.
During his year of office, his granddaughter, Holly, was born. He perhaps saw more of her in her earlier years than he had of Roger and Alan at that age. Family holidays this time were more seaside-oriented than climbing mountains.
In 2002, he stepped down as a councillor but remained busy, being a trustee of the Labour headquarters and on the committees of Sudden Community Centre and the Council for Voluntary Service amongst others.
In 2004, he was made a Freeman of the Borough of Rochdale.
After his death at Springhill Hospice on the 9th of May 2017, the flags at Rochdale Town Hall were flown at half-mast and the Labour headquarters was renamed John Beasley House.
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