James Albert Dean - The Mayors of Bolton Directory

He worked in the cotton trade for 46 years until Bolton Textile Companies Mills were closed under the Wartime scheme for the concentration of industry.

He also worked for Gray's Contractors, in the Manchester Collieries Buying Department and at the Ministry of Works (Temporary Housing Section), Manchester.

He was elected in 1932, representing South-west Ward, but resigned in 1933 for health reasons. He was re-elected in 1938 representing North- west Ward.

At his installation Alderman Holland said he had a character second to none and had always seen the other person's point of view.

Alderman Ralphson said, the new Mayor's greatest virtue was his individuality.

He was made an Alderman in 1946 and received the Freedom of the Borough on 25 April 1968.

He was on the Board of Management of Farnworth and Kearsley Cooperative Society for 14 years and, when in the cotton industry, was Chairman and Secretary of the Textile Spinners, President of the Farnworth Branch of the Operative Spinners and a member of the executive of the Farnworth Trades Council.

Congregationalist - he was a Deacon at Dixon Green Congregational Church and School and was also Sunday School Superintendent. He was a local preacher in the Congregational, Methodist (Wesleyan and Independent) and Baptist denominations. In addition he was a member of the Executives of the Bolton and District Congregational Churches Council and Sunday School Union and the Farnworth and Kearsley Council of Christian Congregations.

His son, the Rev J A Dean, was the Minister of the Waterloo (Liverpool) Congregational Church and his daughter, Lilian, was a Sunday School teacher at Dixon Green and a Deaconess.

*His apparent two year term of office came about as local elections moved from November to April in 1948 so what would otherwise have been a 6 month Mayoralty was extended to accommodate the change.

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