Councillor John Beanse (Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats)

Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats <info@cwglibdems.org.uk>

Councillor John Beanse

October 10, 2008 5:03 PM

Geoff Seeff writes

John Beanse 1947-2008

Liberal Democrats across the East London constituencies were shocked to learn last weekend of the untimely death after a short illness of John Beanse. John had been the mainstay of the Chingford and Woodford Green party (and before the 1994 parliamentary boundary changes, the Chingford party) serving as chairman on several occasions since the 1980s, fighting Iain Duncan Smith as the parliamentary candidate in 2001 and 2005, and leading the team winning the three council seats in Highams Park and Hale End ward of Waltham Forest in an epic battle with the Tories in 2006. He was indefatigable in his work on behalf of constituents, a prolific Focus writer and an indomitable Focus deliverer - in short one of the rocks on which this party is built.

John took a keen interest in all aspects of policy. He was a frequent speaker at conference on matters on which he had a particular expertise including health (as a former chairman of the local area CDC and subsequently a vice chair of the health scrutiny committee), education (as a former teacher) and electoral reform (as an accredited speaker for the ERS) and a regular contributor to LDN - not always agreeing with the party line. As a modern languages graduate from Cambridge, he was an enthusiastic and committed Europhile. I remember vividly a hustings in the 2001 general election where, in response to a question that was intended to allow IDS a platform for a tirade against the EU, he gave one of the most eloquent and impassioned pro-European speeches I have ever heard - it even received applause from the Tories in the audience.

John was a music lover of fairly eclectic tastes - more Bach and Beethoven than Brahms and Bruchner and more Rodgers and Hammerstein than Lloyd Webber. He was also a pianist of considerable ability and brightened local party fund raising music soirees with his renditions of show tunes, light classical pieces and his forgiving accompaniments to my rather unpredictable offerings on the violin.

They say that no man is indispensable - but this hard working, principled man will be very hard to replace and he will be sorely missed by his many good friends in the party.