Coordinates: 53°35′24″N 2°49′12″W / 53.590°N 2.820°W / 53.590; -2.820

Lathom is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England, about 5 km northeast of Ormskirk. It is in the district of West Lancashire, and with the parish of Newburgh forms part of Newburgh ward. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through Lathom.

Lathom was recorded as Latune in the Domesday Book in 1086, Lathum in 1200, and Lathom in 1223 after which it was he usual spelling.

In 1066 the manor of Lathom was the most important of 17 manors held by Uctred, an Anglo-Danish landowner. These manors were set up by Athelstan in the tenth century. By 1189 Robert Fitzhenry de Lathom possessed lands throughout south Lancashire, extending to Flixton in the barony of Manchester. Siward son of Dunning held the township in thanage in the reign of Henry II. Robert de Lathom, in the reign of Edward I was granted the right to hold a market and an annual fair. Robert Lathom founded Burscough Priory in or before 1189.

The manor was conveyed by the marriage of Isabella de Lathom, Sir Thomas Lathom's daughter to Sir John Stanley in 1385, the reign of Henry IV.Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby entertained Henry VII in his castle at Lathom. The present West Wing of Lathom House gives a hint of the importance of Lathom and the Stanley family who became the earls of Derby. The village grew around the castle at Lathom.

Pete Best (born 24 November 1941) is a British musician, principally known as the original drummer in The Beatles. He was born in the city of Madras, which was then part of British India. After his mother moved to Liverpool in 1945, Best's mother, Mona Best (1924–1988), opened The Casbah Coffee Club, in the cellar of the Bests' large house in Liverpool, which became very popular, having a membership of over 1,000. The Beatles (at the time known as The Quarrymen) played some of their earliest concerts at the club. Best played there with his first band, The Black Jacks, and later with The Beatles.

Best was invited to join The Beatles on 12 August 1960, on the eve of the group's first Hamburg season of club dates. He was eventually replaced by Ringo Starr on 16 August 1962, when The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, dismissed Best under the direction of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, following The Beatles' first recording session at Abbey Road Studios. After working in a number of commercially unsuccessful groups he gave up the music industry to work as a civil servant for twenty years, before starting The Pete Best Band. He has been married for over 45 years to Kathy Best; they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Best is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".