Friends, family and well-wishers will gather at Hull Minster today for the funeral of former deputy prime minister Lord John Prescott.
Chief among the mourners will be the Labour politician’s widow, Lady Pauline Prescott, who was at her late husband’s side throughout their more than 60 years of marriage.
Lady Prescott was born in 1940 to a bricklayer father who died when she was a youngster. She became pregnant by a married US serviceman at the age of 15.
Despite her attempts to keep her son, Lady Prescott was persuaded to give the boy up for adoption.
Not long after training as a hairdresser and gaining a job at a salon in Chester, she met John Prescott, who was then a waiter for Cunard with political ambitions.
Lord Prescott was supported by Lady Prescott as he studied economics at the University of Hull and rose through the ranks to become a union activist.
John became an MP in 1970, representing Kingston upon Hull East after beating Norman Lamont, who went on to become chancellor under former prime minister Sir John Major.
Prescott went on to become deputy prime minister during Sir Tony Blair’s premiership, with wife Pauline going from the salon floor to a front row seat at major political events.
Compared to US film star Elizabeth Taylor in her youth, Lady Prescott, 82, was famed for her fashion sense and striking hats as the wife of one of the UK’s top politicians.
During a trip to Cornwall in 2001, John was told that Pauline’s son, Paul, whom she had been forced to give up for adoption 40 years before, had been found by reporters.
A lieutenant in the Royal Military Police, Sandhurst-educated Paul had received an MBE for his service in Northern Ireland and an OBE for commanding the Military Police in Kosovo.
In her life story, Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking, Lady Prescott describes accusing her husband of winding her up when he shared news of the call.
Lord Prescott denied teasing his wife, adding, “I bet he’s a bloody Tory”, according to Lady Prescott, who was “thrilled” to finally be reunited with her first-born son.
When mother and son met for the first time after all the intervening years, a tearful Lady Prescott told him she loved him as much as her two sons by Lord Prescott, Johnathan and David, even though at the time she didn’t know him as well.
The couple’s youngest son, David Prescott, was Labour’s candidate in Gainsborough in 2015, but failed to be selected for Lord Prescott’s seat. He has worked for former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Described by her publisher, Harper Collins, as “loyal, sharp, good humoured and articulate”, Lady Prescott remained at her late husband’s side until his death aged 86 in November.
