My friend John Windle, who has died aged 75, three years after a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, was a committed socialist for all his adult life and supported the successful campaign to elect Tony Benn as MP for Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in the fiercely contested byelection of 1984. John devoted much of his earlier life to supporting his local Labour party in Chesterfield and various community associations in Sheffield.
Born in Chesterfield to Kathleen (nee Ashmore), a school cook, and Roy Windle, a steelworker, John attended the local grammar school and left aged 16 to work in administration at Chesterfield Tube Works, which produced weldless steel cylinders, tubes and forgings. He continued his education part-time, gaining an HNC in business studies at Chesterfield College, then a diploma in the same subject at Sheffield Polytechnic in the early 1980s, followed later by a master’s degree from the University of Hull in 1997.
