John Cowburn Beavan, Baron Ardwick (9 April 1910 – 18 August 1994) was a British journalist, Labour life peer and Member of the European Parliament. Born to a Welsh father in Ardwick, Manchester, he began his journalistic career in local newspapers before a long associations with The Guardian and Mirror. He was a staunch Labour supporter and was appointed as a life peer by Harold Wilson in 1970, namely to represent journalism in the House of Lords.
Beavan was a son of Silas Morgan Beavan (of Welsh origin and a grocer, according to censuses) and Emily Esther (née Hussey); and was educated at Manchester Grammar School.[1]
Beavan was reporter of the Manchester Evening News, becoming its editor in 1943. Between 1946 and 1955, he was London editor of The Guardian.[2] For two years, 1960 to 1962, he was editor of the Daily Herald, then becoming political advisor to the Mirror Group, a post he retained until 1976.[3] He was a Labour Member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1979.[2]
On 16 January 1970, he was created a life peer as Baron Ardwick, of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.[4]
He married Gladys Jones in 1934 by whom he had two children. By Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist, he was also the father of Matthew Symonds.[5] Symonds' daughter Carrie is the spouse of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, a Conservative.[6]
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