Former Mayor of Newark, John Moore, dies aged 77

A lifelong member of the Labour Party and a former Mayor of Newark, Mr John Moore, has died aged 77.

Mr Moore died on Thursday at his home in Newark with his wife, Mrs Lorraine Moore, by his side. The couple had just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

A humanist celebration of his life will be held at Newark Town Hall at 11.30am on Monday.

There will be family flowers only, with donations to Beaumond House Community Hospice, Newark, where Mr Moore received respite care.

Newark Town Band will play at the start and end of the ceremony.

Mr Moore was chairman of the band for 30 years and was among a group of six musicians who helped to revive it in the 1980s.

He learned to play with the Salvation Army Band and played a range of brass instruments including the trumpet and cornet.

Mr Moore was the oldest of six children and the only boy.

He was educated at Barnby Road School, Newark, and when he left became a delivery boy for Randalls, a department store on Appletongate.

He then worked as a telegraph boy before serving with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers for three years and was based in Cyprus.

He joined Ransome and Marles in Newark, followed by a spell as a clerk with Newark Post Office.

Mr Moore was then employed as a representative for the union, NUPE, which later become UNISON, and earned a reputation for defending the rights of workers and representing anyone with a problem.

Mrs Moore said he would devote hours to careful preparation for each case.

“Many people were very grateful to him,” she said.

“He always stood up for their rights.”

Mr Moore, a founder member of Newark Town Football Club, was always interested in politics and was a Labour Party member for more than 50 years.

He was elected to Newark Borough Council representing a large area of the town in the early 1970s and later became a charter trustee.

He was also elected on to Nottinghamshire County Council and became a committee chairman.

Mr Moore was one of the first members of Newark Town Council when it was set up in 1980 and was Mayor of Newark in 1986.

He was keen on forging links with Poland and was given the Order of Merit of the Polish People’s Republic.

He was among those instrumental in returning the remains of Polish wartime leader General Wladyslaw Sikorski to Poland in 1993 from Newark Cemetery, where he had been buried for 50 years.

Mr Moore was made MBE in 1994 for his services to the community.

He was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was involved in a visit to Newark by peace campaigner Monsignor Bruce Kent at the height of the campaign.

Mr Moore, who had been retired for 27 years, had been ill for some time and last summer was diagnosed with myeloid leukaemia.

“He was a good husband and father,” said Mrs Moore.

“He was a man who stood by his principles and would never go against anything he believed in.”

He leaves his wife, four sons ­— David, Stephen, Andrew and Paul ­— five granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.