Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

JOHN MCCORMACK (c.1827-1904)

John was born in Dublin circa 1827, the son of John McCormack, a labourer.

Sadly, we have been unable to locate John and his family in any of the Irish Census records.  It is highly likely that these documents were destroyed by fire during the Civil War in 1922 when the Public Records Office in Dublin suffered a severe attack.  However, it is possible to find John’s places of residence and occupations via other documentation that have survived.

John was a military man and served with the 28^th Regiment (28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot).  Aged 24 on the 1851 Census, John was a Private and based at Salford Barracks, Regent Road.  The 28^th was originally raised in 1694.  It served in many British Army campaigns until 1881, when it became part of The Gloucestershire Regiment.  The 28th served in the Crimea (1854-56), which John was a part of and in 1857, he fought in the siege of Delhi where he was wounded.

John married Bridget Bannon, daughter of Martin Bannon on 30 October 1864 at St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, located at Arran Quay, Dublin.  John was a labourer and both he and Bridget were residents of Willis’s Court, Dublin.  Together, they had five known children – John Michael (1866-1903),
Elizabeth Winfred (1871-), Martin (1872-), Anne (1877-) and James (1880-).

On the baptism record of John Michael in 1866, it states that the couple were residing at
18 Coleraine Street, Dublin.  The residence on the baptism record of daughter Elizabeth Winfred in 1871 is 6 Ward, Rotunda Hospital.  The hospital still exists today and is understood to be the oldest maternity hospital in the world, founded in 1745.  The last known address the family lived at in Ireland was Phillipsboug Avenue, Dublin.  This can be seen on the baptism record of youngest son James and also on the military record of John Michael.

From the mid 1880s to early 1890s John moved his family from Ireland to England.  In 1891 John, Bridget and children Anne and James were residing at Colewort Barracks in Portsmouth.  John’s occupation was an Office Messenger Port.  According to the cover page of the Census, these were the quarters of the
Army Service Corps, Military Police and detachments of other Corps and located at St George’s Road.

Over the next decade John and Bridget moved to Berkhamsted and made 14 Ellesmere Road their home.  In 1901 they had a 14 year old boarder living with them; his name was Josceline Frederick Vernon Watkins from Australia.  John’s occupation was recorded as ‘Caretaker of Infirmary’ and according to the acknowledgements section in the Watford Observer dated 12 March 1904, John was Caretaker at Berkhamsted Grammar School.

Just five months before his death, John and Bridget’s eldest son John Michael died in South Africa on
03 September 1903 of a fracture of the base of the skull.

John sadly died on 24 February 1904 aged 77.  A memoriam was published in the Berkhamstedian, Vol 24, Issue 147, 1904 which reads as follows:
‘On February 24^th, 1904, there passed away at the Sanatorium John McCormack, whom many will remember both at the School as Caretaker, and recently at the Sanatorium.  He had served in the Crimea, and was wounded in the Siege of Delhi during the Indian Mutiny.  Both his sons were soldiers too.  His eldest fought in Egypt and South Africa, and met with a fatal accident recently in Natal.  I believe his father never recovered from that blow.  The younger son is now a sergeant in the A.S.C., and also served in South Africa.  All who knew McCormack honoured and liked him.  He worked as long as ever he could; but latterly had to content himself with going to and from the “Sannie.”
He was an upright-minded, faithful-hearted soldier, with a kind word and a joke for everyone.  He was a Catholic, and what is more, a sincere Catholic – regular at his Chapel services.  The little Crucifix above the bed wherein he died was a symbol of a faith in his Master that he strove to live by.  Let us remember and regret him: faithful ervants are not found everywhere in service now-a-days.

T.C.F.’

John was buried here at Rectory Lane on 29 February and son John Michael is commemorated on his headstone.

John was clearly never forgotten in the school community as, in 1922, he was remembered with fondness by a ‘T.G.R.’ in another issue of the Berkhamstedian –
‘Ten o’clock was the hour at which McCormack went on circuit.  Nowadays he would be described as the custodian, but we never looked on him as anything but McCormack.  He was an old soldier with somewhat stiff kneejoints, and this was carefully explained to the new boy as being the result of the army practice of wearing trousers very tightly strapped under his boots, so tight in fact that he could never bend his knees when in uniform.  As I don’t suppose soldiers were ever allowed to wear mufti in those days, he must have experienced a good deal of his refined sort of torture.  I now think it was more likely old age and rheumatism than the exigencies of the service.  His business was to go up to the Headmaster’s room for certain books which were handed by him to the masters who used to make notes of absentees and such like, and then give them back to McCormack.  He came in very useful as a private enquiry agent on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, when we were waiting outside the Doctor’s classroom for instruction in, let us say, Latin Prose.  “What’s he like, McCormack” we used to ask eagerly when he was safely outside with his book.  A reply such as “’Ees laffin’” sent our spirits up, while “’Ees got ‘is cane out” was a prelude to a very bad three-quarters-of-an-hour.’

T.G.R.