Ian Brookfield: A life in work and politics dedicated to helping others
In both work and politics Ian Brookfield led a life dedicated to helping those around him.
The leader of Wolverhampton Council, who has died aged 57, will be remembered as a titan of local government, who led the city through the pandemic and worked across political boundaries for the good of residents.
Born and bred in Liverpool, Councillor Brookfield developed a deep love for Wolverhampton and its people having moved to the city more than 35 years ago.
He often spoke of the "great privilege" of becoming council leader and once described his journey to get there as "a learning curve in life and politics".
In an interview in 2019, he told the Star that one of his earliest memories was being taken by his father George, a long-distance lorry driver and a shop steward in the old Transport and General Workers' Union, to see Prime Minister and Huyton MP Harold Wilson speak at the Pier Head.
"Thousands of people turned up. It was the start of my basic education in politics," Mr Brookfield recalled.
He moved to Wolverhampton through his job as a nurse working in prisons, and it was while he was at home in Low Hill one evening in 1990 that his political destiny started to take shape.
The late Councillor Pete Bilson – who would become his great friend and colleague – knocked on the door and asked him to put up a Labour poster.
