Bermondsey and Rotherhithe are mourning the loss of a much-loved character who entertained local families at his church social club and worked hard to represent his community on the council.
Michael Hannon, better known to his friends and family as Mick – sadly passed away on 15 February aged just 67, after a short four-month battle with cancer.
Mick was born to a large Bermondsey Irish family on 9 February 1959, the second-oldest of five children.
Mick grew up on Swan Road in Rotherhithe, attending St Joseph’s Primary School on Paradise Street, followed by St Michael’s Catholic School in Dockhead but is best known as the man in charge of the social club in St Peter & the Guardian Angels Church on Paradise Street, which he ran for 22 years.
Truly a family affair he took over the club from his parents in 2001, and ran it up until his retirement three years ago.
The club would host events for church members and the wider community, and was famous for its popular quiz nights which Mick would preside over as quizmaster.
Mick lived with his wife Lorraine off St James’s Road in Bermondsey, where they raised their two daughters, Sophie and Emma.
Most of his siblings later moved out to Sidcup – something Mick “thought about a few times but he never would have left the area,” according to his daughter Emma.
She described her Dad as having a “bubbly personality, he was a joker. He didn’t take no rubbish either. He’d happily put you in your place.
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“He was a good husband and lovely dad. His wife, children and grandchildren all adored him.”
As a young man in his 20s, Mick would go on to play a key part in transforming the fortunes of the local Liberal Party in Bermondsey at a time when a little known politician called Simon Hughes won the area’s parliamentary seat, knocking Labour out of a seat that contained their own party headquarters on the Walworth Road.
In 1980, he became the Chair of the Bermondsey Liberal Party. In 1985 he was elected to represent Riverside ward, becoming one of the first four Liberal councillors in Southwark.
In 1986 Mick secured re-election for a four year-term – the same year in which the Liberals gained 15 councillors in Southwark, becoming the largest opposition party in the council.
At that time the political force that is today known as the Liberal Democrats did not yet exist as a single unified party. Instead, they operated as the SDP–Liberal Alliance. It was under this banner that Simon Hughes was elected MP in 1983. The party was an electoral pact between two distinct parties, the Liberal Party led by David Steel and the Social Democratic Party led by David Owen. The two parties formally merged in 1988 to create the Social and Liberal Democrats, which officially adopted the name Liberal Democrats the following year.
Sir Simon Hughes, the MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey from 1983-2015, described Mick as a “key player in the transformation of the Liberal Party.
“An early member and helper, Mick was Bermondsey Liberal Party Chairman in the decade when we won the parliamentary and first Southwark Council seats,” he said.
“On the council no-one stood up more for the local community than Mick, and as an opposition councillor he took the fight to Labour as much as anyone has done in the last 40 years. Without Mick and people like him, Liberals would never have won so many elections from 1983 onwards. Our communities and our borough owe him so much,” he added.
Describing Mick as a “true Bermondsey diamond”, Sir Simon continued: “He was the most loyal, straight-talking, principled, witty and wise friend anyone could have. I am privileged that we were friends for over 40 years. Part of a great Bermondsey Irish Roman Catholic family – son, brother, husband, father and grandfather – Mick was also a much appreciated colleague – as council officer, Carlton and BT engineer and Department of Work and Pensions work coach – a post he held up to his death.
“Hundreds also knew him as the person for years running one of the best Bermondsey social clubs – in St Peter’s Paradise Street church hall.
“Our communities and our borough owe him so much. And we send his devoted wife Lorraine and all his family our deep condolences that cancer took him so quickly. But the contribution made by this great character and lovely big guy will never be forgotten.
There will be a funeral for Mick at St Peter and the Guardian Angels next Friday (20th March) at 10:30 am.
The cremation will be in Brenchley Gardens, followed by a reception in the Salt Quay in Rotherhithe.
