John Edmondson Whittaker

John Edmondson Whittaker (1897 – c.9 December 1945) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.

John Whittaker was born in Burnley in 1897. After working as a weaver in a cotton mill as a boy, Whittaker was educated at Burnley Municipal College and Sarisbury Court Church of England Teachers' Training College, Hampshire. He fought in the First World War.

In 1921 he married Alice, daughter of Frank Marshall. They had a daughter.

He was headmaster of Rosegrove County Modern School, Burnley until his election as Member of Parliament for Heywood and Radcliffe at the 1945 general election, when he defeated the sitting Conservative MP, James Henry Wootton-Davies, by 892 votes.

In late 1945 Whittaker suffered bouts of ill-health, first influenza, then collapsing in Manchester. On 7 December 1945, Whittaker told his wife he was going for a walk. His body was discovered two days later at Crown Point, near Burnley. He had committed suicide.

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