John was born in Hull in 1939. He was the deputy leader of the South Yorkshire County Council, the chair of Sheffield's Crucible and Lyceum Theatres and vice-chair of the Yorkshire and Humberside Sports Council. In retirement he has written twenty books and a number of poems. He lives in Sheffield.
John Cornwell, former deputy leader of South Yorkshire County Council, reviews its history, and what the future could be for South Yorkshire. Looking back to its creation before Thatcher, and the Iron Lady’s moves against the body, Cornwell has hopes for South Yorkshire’s resurgence.
John Cornwell recalls three Polish war memorials from the city of Bolesławiec in Poland, the site of a former concentration camp. “It was sad reminder of how history, once so furious and meaningful in a place, moves on and what was once so vitally significant is now just a footnote in a peaceful neighbourhood.”
Like most cricket enthusiasts, John Cornwell has tried at various times to explain cricket to people from non cricket playing countries, but with little success. Here he recalls three wonderful examples.
With the focus these days on executive mayors, the role of the traditional mayors and lord mayors can get overlooked. Here John Cornwell recounts the challenges that three Sheffield lord mayors had to face while discharging their civic responsibilities. For almost two decades I was a local councillor in South Yorkshire. I soon discovered that there were three givens about the […]
‘Billy’ was something of a school treasure, but when I was in his history class in the fifties, he was well past his best. He had gone straight from his school’s sixth form in Bradford to serve on the Western Front and was badly gassed: an experience that left him with a permanent, persistent cough. […]
Referees come in many shapes and sizes. Here, John Cornwell recalls three splendid Yorkshire examples. The first refereed on a bike… As a sixth former at a county schoolboys’ trial match, I got talking with a boy from one of the better known boarding schools. When he discovered that I came from the East Riding […]