| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Ardwick | |
| Office: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start: | 16 January 1970 Life Peerage |
| Term End: | 18 August 1994 |
| Office2: | Member of the European Parliament |
| Term Start2: | 1975 |
| Term End2: | 1979 |
| Birth Date: | 9 April 1910 |
| Death Date: | 18 August 1994 |
| Occupation: | politician, editor, reporter |
| Party: | Labour |
| Alma Mater: | Manchester Grammar School |
| Spouse: | Gladys Jones |
| Children: | 3 (including Matthew Symonds) |
| Relatives: | Carrie Johnson (granddaughter) |
John Cowburn Beavan, Baron Ardwick (9 April 1910 – 18 August 1994) was a British journalist, Labour life peer and Member of the European Parliament. Born to a Welsh father in Ardwick, Manchester, he began his journalistic career in local newspapers before a long associations with The Guardian and Mirror. He was a staunch Labour supporter and was appointed as a life peer by Harold Wilson in 1970, namely to represent journalism in the House of Lords.
Beavan was a son of Silas Morgan Beavan (of Welsh origin and a grocer, according to censuses) and Emily Esther (née Hussey); and was educated at Manchester Grammar School.[1]
Beavan was reporter of the Manchester Evening News, becoming its editor in 1943. Between 1946 and 1955, he was London editor of The Guardian.[2] For two years, 1960 to 1962, he was editor of the Daily Herald, then becoming political advisor to the Mirror Group, a post he retained until 1976.[3] He was a Labour Member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1979.[2]
On 16 January 1970, he was created a life peer as Baron Ardwick, of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
He married Gladys Jones in 1934 by whom he had two children. By Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist, he was also the father of Matthew Symonds.[4] Symonds' daughter Carrie is the spouse of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, a Conservative.[5]
| Crest: | A Cock criant standing upon a hand mirror Proper the frame and handle Or. |
| Coronet: | A Coronet of a Baron |
| Escutcheon: | Or a dragon passant between two roses Gules barbed and seeded proper in chief and in base on a pile reversed Gules an Owl Argent. |
| Supporters: | On either side a representation of an angel holding in the superior hand a shepherd's crook Proper. |
| Motto: | IN OMNIA PARATUS (Prepared In All Things) |