A MAN WHO DID SO MUCH FOR BRIGG

Most Brigg people will be aware of Hewson House - North Lincolnshire Council's main office complex off Station Road. But how many know of the unique contribution made to the community by the man it's named after?
George Hewson was a giant of local government in a small town.
He was not only chairman of Brigg Urban District Council* on four occasions but also Mayor of Glanford and Town Mayor of Brigg (following local government re-organisation in 1974).
Born early in the 1900s and originally from Louth, he served in the Royal Navy as a young man and came to Brigg in the late 1920s as a house painting contractor.
"He had one month to go on the Naval reserve when war broke out in 1939 and he was one of the first three men in Brigg to get calling-up papers," local journalist Edward Dodd later revealed in his book about the town (published in 1974).
George's local government service began post-war, in 1946, when he gained one of the seats on Brigg UDC.
He was still serving on its successor authority, Brigg Town Council, when Brigg Blog began reporting on meetings for the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times in the early 1980s.
His other posts down the decades included:

• Member of Lindsey County Council for Brigg
• Member of Humberside County Council for Brigg (from 1974).
• Member of Glanford Borough Council (based in the town from 1974).
• Chairman of Brigg Amateur Operatic Society.
• Chairman of Brigg Old People's Welfare Committee.
• Member of the Scunthorpe Hospital Management Committee, whose facilities included Glanford Hospital, Brigg (now the site of the Health Place offices).
• First president of Brigg Town Band when it re-formed in the mid-1960s.
• Member of the League of Hospital Friends, making Christmas Day visits to see patients and hand out gifts.
• Brigg meals on wheels van deliverer to the homes of senior citizens.
• Member of the Lindsey Water Board, overseeing local supplies.

North Lincolnshire Council, founded in 1996, had not been going very long when it chose to name its Brigg offices in memory of George Hewson.
He lived in a bungalow on Eastfield Road for many years - having earlier operated a shop serving the Newlands housing estate.
George worked alongside Joseph J. Magrath, the town clerk, for many decades.
Joe - a salaried official - was known to many as Mr Brigg, but George was equally deserving of this accolade, in terms of his voluntary service.
* Brigg UDC did not have a mayor but its chairman carried out a very similar role as head of the authority.

The entrance to North Lincolnshire Council's Hewson House offices in Brigg