John Robert Riding, 1902-1983, was born in Gateacre, near Liverpool, and lived at Newcastle-under-Lyme until he was three years old, when his parents moved to London. Ridings began his career as an office boy with Camberwell Metropolitan Borough Council in 1917. In September 1940 he became Assistant Solicitor for Camberwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Riding was appointed Solicitor and Deputy Clerk to Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council, Middlesex in July 1943. In October 1946 he was appointed Clerk and Solicitor to Willenhall Urban District Council, Staffordshire. He retired from this post in March 1966 on the re-organisation of local government in the West Midlands. He went on to become Clerk of Shifnal Parish Council, Shropshire in 1968. In October 1976 Riding was appointed Town Clerk of Shifnal when the Parish Council became a Town Council. In March 1977 Riding retired after sixty years in local government. In February 1926 Riding was appointed Secretary to the Joint Committee of the Peckham branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and Camberwell Local Communist Party. In 1930 Riding retired from this post as he was moving from the Borough following his marriage. In 1928 Riding became Acting Secretary to the ILP South London Federation. He became Propaganda Secretary for the Federation in 1930. He was Member of the National Executive Committee of the Society of Clerks of the Urban District Councils, 1952-1968; President of the Society of Clerks of the Urban District Councils, 1954-1966; Member of the Executive Council of the Urban District Councils Association, 1966-1967; Member of the National Executive Committee of the Society of Local Council Clerks, 1972-1975; Chairman of the Executive Committee, Shropshire Association of Parish & Town Councils, 1974-1977, and continued as a co-opted member of this Committee after his retirement.
From the guide to the RIDING, John Robert, 1902-1983, local government Clerk and solicitor, 1923-1930, (British Library of Political and Economic Science)
