John Elsworth, a life member of the Guild, celebrated his 90th birthday on 23rd April 2020.
John was tower captain at Bunbury for over twenty years and served as Chairman of the South Branch for a short period and later Branch Treasurer for many years.
In November 1951 John was one of the opening band of ringers at Liverpool Cathedral and may be the last surviving ringer attending that event; he remains a non-ringing Honorary Life Member of the Liverpool Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers.
His long interest in bell ringing stems from 1951 when, as a former chorister, he was in the right place at the right time when the cathedral bells were being hung. In parallel with his cathedral ringing he also rang at Childwall and Woolton being tutored by the late George Newton and Ernest Humphriss, respectively.
It was at Woolton that John met, wooed, and later married the prettiest ringer Miss Hilda Price, and they have two sons. His elder son, David, became a keen ringer.
Over the later period of John’s ringing he demoted himself from the heavy end to the light end, the move being the consequences of multiple major surgery. He rang only two peals, but was more enthused by quarter peal ringing which, alas, he never thought to record, some of which were at Chester Cathedral.
The South Branch send our best wishes to John.