The Baron Fearn, OBE 1931-2022

 Lord Fearn, OBE, a Liberal Democrat life peer, died 24 January, 2022. He was 90.

Ronald Cyril Fearn was born 6 Feb, 1931, son of James Fearn and his wife Martha Ellen, and was educated at the King George V Grammar School, Southport.

Career: was a banker with Williams Deacons Bank, later Williams and Glyn's Bank, later Royal Bank of Scotland. MP [Liberal 1987-88, Liberal Democrat 1988-92, and 1997-2001] Southport; contested [Lib Dem] Southport, 1992. Lib Dem Spokesman on health and tourism 1988-89, on local government 1989-90, on transport, housing and tourism, 1990-92; Member of the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport 1997-2001 &c.

He was raised to the peerage for life in 2001, as Baron Fearn, of Southport in the County of Merseyside. He retired from the House of Lords in 2018.

Fearn served from 1974 until 2016 as a Sefton Metropolitan Borough councillor, having been a member of its predecessor body, Merseyside County Council. He thus achieved over 50 years of continuous service, being first elected as a Liberal and then for its successor party, the Liberal Democrats. Fearn first contested the borough at the inaugural elections of 1973 as a candidate for the Southport ward of Craven-Sussex-Talbot, in which he topped the poll, receiving more votes than the two other Liberal candidates elected alongside him.

He was appointed OBE in 1985.

In 1955, Ronnie Fearn married Joyce Edna Dugan; they had a son, Martin, and a daughter.

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