Death of ex teacher and Ribble Valley Mayor

Mr John Travis MBE, of Bashall Eaves, who dedicated his career to teaching with a particular interest in art and music, died last week.

Born and brought up in Liverpool, Mr Travis trained as a teacher at Chester College and graduated from Birmingham University.

His first job was teaching at a 2,000-pupil secondary school in Kirkby, where he taught English to children for seven years.

In 1963, his teaching career took him to Padiham as deputy head of the town’s former CE secondary modern school and he bought his house in Simonstone, where he continued to live until the year 2000, when he moved to Bashall Eaves.

Three years later he became headteacher at a school in Ramsbottom and worked there until the late 1970s.

A year before retiring, Mr Travis, who had been councillor for the Simonstone area since 1987, was elected as Ribble Valley Mayor. During the year, he successfully managed to juggle his role as a headteacher while carrying out his day-to-day mayoral duties.

During his retirement he played an active role in making Stonyhurst’s Centenaries Theatre a great success.

More recently his work involved arranging lunch concerts at Knowle Green. He was awarded an MBE in January 2005 in the Queen’s New Year’s Honour’s List for his outstanding efforts for people across Lancashire. The funeral service will be held at All Hallows Church, Mitton, at 2 pm.