Bridge McFarland - About Us

John Bridge 1946-2006

In 2006 the firm announced the death of founding partner John Bridge who died unexpectedly of a heart attack on 18th March at the age of 59. John was a popular and supportive colleague, a caring friend and a loving husband and father.

John is remembered by colleagues and clients alike for his wholly irreverent good humour, his consistently off-beat sense of fun, his loving nature and his generosity of spirit and time.

He was involved in so many notable cases that we cannot mention them all but they included representing the victims of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster and the case of the Liverpool man Raymond Nelson, who was posthumously awarded the Queen's Award for Gallantry after he went back into a fire-hit building to search for a missing colleague in a production plant in Kazakhstan.

John was born in Manchester in 1946 and his family moved to Grimsby when he was ten. He attended Wintringham Boys Grammar and later Grimsby College.

He began work in the building industry but developed an interest in law and went to study at Leeds University graduating in 1970. He joined Keeble Hawson Steele Carr in Sheffield after qualifying as a solicitor and in 1976 established Keeble Hawson Bridge & Co in Grimsby.

John was an avid sportsman and sports fan. He played rugby for Headingley as a student and enjoyed playing cricket in the Grimsby midweek leagues and participating in five-a-side football. He later took up cycling, becoming founder member of the Westgate Chapter, who ride switchback roads of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

He was a huge Mariners fan and rarely missed a home game at Blundell Park.