My friend Eric Beak, who has died aged 84, was Cheshire county council’s first health and safety officer. In retirement he became a dedicated youth worker much loved by a generation of young people.
Born in West Ham, east London, Eric was the son of Ellen (nee Connor), a seamstress, and Herbert Beak. In the early years of the second world war the family moved to Wallasey, Merseyside, where Herbert, who worked for Spillers, the flour merchant, was appointed foreman at the Birkenhead docks, a fortuitous move as their London house was destroyed by the Luftwaffe two days after they moved. The family returned south after the war, to Welling, where Eric attended Dartford grammar school for boys. The girls’ grammar was next door; at the boundary between the two schools he got to know Angela Tilyard. They married in 1962.
