John Stuart Forrester was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Early life and education

Forrester was born in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...

 and was educated at Eastwood (local authority run) School, the City School of Commerce in Stoke-on-Trent, and Alsager

Alsager

Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe...

 teacher training college

Teacher training college

A teacher training college is a college of higher education that specialises in training students to be teachers.Many universities offer similar facilities, a number of which acquired their provision by taking over a teacher training college or by a teacher training college evolving into a...

 in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

.

Early career

He spent three and a half years in the Royal Navy and taught English to the Polish Resettlement Corps

Polish Resettlement Corps

The Polish Resettlement Corps was an organisation formed by the British Government in 1946 as a holding unit for members of the Polish Armed Forces who had been serving with the British Armed Forces and did not wish to return to a Communist Poland after the end of the Second World War...

 before becoming a teacher in the city. Partly as a consequence of his experience in the armed services, Forrester remained a "steadfast Atlanticist

Atlanticism

Atlanticism is a philosophy of cooperation among Western European and North American nations regarding political, economic, and defense issues, with the purpose to maintain the security of the participating countries, and to protect the values that unite them: "democracy, individual liberty and...

 all his political life".

Political career

Having been secretary of the local Constituency Labour Party

Constituency Labour Party

A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...

 from 1961, Forrester was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Stoke-on-Trent North from 1966 to 1987, when was deselected as Labour candidate and replaced by Joan Walley

Joan Walley

Joan Lorraine Walley is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent North since 1987.-Early life:...

.

In 1970, he was appointed as parliamentary private secretary to David Ennals, the then Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Security

Department of Health and Social Security

The Department of Health and Social Security was a ministry of the British government in existence for twenty years from 1968 until 1988, and was headed by the Secretary of State for Social Services.-History:...

.

Forrester was a Stoke-on-Trent City Councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 for East Valley (a ward that includes parts of Smallthorne

Smallthorne

Smallthorne is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is in the north-east of the city, near Burslem...

, Sneyd Green

Sneyd Green

Sneyd Green is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is in the north-east of the city, approx. from Hanley...

, Milton and Baddeley Green) from 1973 to 2000 and served as chairman of the authority's licensing committee.

He was made Stoke-on-Trent's 50th honorary Freeman

Freedom of the City

Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...

 in September 1992. He also served as a Magistrate

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

in the city.

After Forrester's death, the Secretary of his local Labour Party Branch described his "sense of duty, his commitment, his approachability, his warmth, and his humour".