CHARNEY HALL. A. B. K. (John) McCullagh Too

When Tilak Paul first suggested a post for John McCullagh I attempted to conduct some further research about him but I have to admit that initially I failed miserably. Masters divulged very little about their personal lives and at the time it was neither considered necessary for our education nor even polite to ask. Now there is a chance to complete at least part of an unfinished picture.

John’s forenames gave no clues as to who his parents were on the Ancestry site. There appeared to be no reference whatsoever about his familial connections. I was stuck straight away with no leads to follow!

Then one evening, probably with that far-away, dazed look on my face that Maxwell Duncan once referred to in one of the annual reports to my parents (but which now I know probably relate to an undiagnosed touch of ADHD!), I was struck by an idea which to most people would seem all too obvious!  - Why not simply search by ‘place of birth’ and ‘surname’? Be vague rather than striving to be too particular as Ancestry encourages its members to be….As soon as I pressed the search button multiple references to the McCullaghs flashed up on the screen. However, what I still find strange, is that none of the authors of McCullagh family trees located on Ancestry have been aware of John’s existence and as a consequence he has never been linked to his parents - perhaps another part of the jigsaw for them? - In fact, as far as Ancestry is concerned, John never existed but did die on 11th July 1995 in the West Cumberland Hospital at Whitehaven.

Thereafter, the more recent 200 years of his family tree was initially relatively easy to establish, despite an abundance of similar forenames and with some hidden surprises :

The Family Tree

Credit : Ancestry/Keith Smith

Arthur Beresford Kane McCullagh (born:26 October 1926, died:11 July 1995) was, on his paternal side, related to the well known Wesleyan minister the Rev. Thomas McCullagh (his great grandfather) who was born in Ischnabagh, Co. Galway, Ireland located just north of Lough Derg. 

Thomas travelled extensively during his life and ministry (see Chronology below) being elected Chairman of the Liverpool District and President of the Wesleyan Conference in 1883, eventually settling with his family in Merseyside. He married Isabella Hays McCullagh (b:1830 in Barrasford, Hexham d: 22 April 1914) in Hexham in 1845. Thomas died on 11 November 1908.

THOMAS McCULLAGH - CHRONOLOGY :

1822 - Birth - Ischnabagh, Ireland

1845 - Entered Wesleyan Ministry

1849 - Marriage - Hexhamh

1851 - Living in Shotley Bridge, Consett, Durham (England Census)

1861 - Living in Clerkenwell, Finsbury, London (England Census)

1871 - Living in Lambeth, London (England Census)

1878 - Chairman of Liverpool District - Recorded laying a Memorial Stone, at New Chapel, Gresford, 

1881 - Living in Sculcoates, Hull (England Census)

1883 - President of Wesleyan Conference

1891 - Living in Kensington, London (England Census)

1901 - Living in Garston, Lancashire (England Census)

1908 - Death - Grassendale, Merseyside 

Thomas and Isabella had 10 children amongst whom were: 

Thomas Alexander McCullagh JP, VD, MRICS Eng.1876, LRCP Edin.1878. A member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, also a Medical Practitioner and Arthur B K’s grandfather.

Henry Hays McCullagh, a Weslyan Minister like his father.

Rev. Charles Bernard McCullagh. An Anglican Minister.

Rev. Arthur McCullagh TCD, BA 1883, MA 1890. An Anglican Minister..

Arnold Rochford McCullagh LSA Lond.1895, LMSSA Lond.1907 (recorded in the 1911 Census as an ‘Officer in Army’ in WW1 also a Medical Practitioner. 

The son of Thomas Alexander McCullough,  Lt Colonel Arthur Cecil Hays McCullagh DSO, MB, BS Surg.1906 Univ.Durham served in WW1 in RAMC* 1914-20. In the 1911 England Census he was already recorded as a ‘Medical Practitioner’. He was Arthur B K’s father.

* Royal Army Medical Corps

Medical Services in WW1

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-short-guide-to-medical-services-during-the-first-world-war#:~:text=The%20RAMC's%20job%20was%20both,at%20least%2016%20stretcher%2Dbearers.

Arthur C H and Lucretia Isabella Beresford Kane (b:1894, d:1974) were married in July 1921. 

Arthur B K must have felt overshadowed, even eclipsed by the pedigrees and life experiences of his parents, aunts and uncles together with various relatives on his mother’s side! No wonder he sought a more sheltered and obscure life but with no less a responsible vocation. His adoption of the name ‘John’, an ever popular, traditional forename, may have been another attempt to simplify his life.

It was often customary at that time to include the maiden name(s) of the female line as one of the forenames. For the student of ancestry this is a bonus, acting as confirmation of the accuracy of the links in a family tree. Arthur’s name of ‘Beresford’ only appears to extend back to his grandfather (his mother’s father). I cannot trace this surname any further back in time on the Kane family line. However there appears to be an anomally, perhaps no more than a coincidence in the McCullagh ancestry, where I discovered that Isabella Hays McCullagh, A B K McCullagh’s great grandmother was born in Barrasford, Hexham….! The fact that place names, surnames and forenames are often mispelt in historic records makes this a fascinating discovery. The mystery is why the name of a village on Arthur’s male line is so similar to the surname ‘Beresford’ on his female side. I have also come across records where the surname ‘McCullagh’ has been written ‘Cullagh’ or ‘McCull’.

In true Victorian tradition Thomas and Isabella had a large family (ref. The family tree above) and so the young Arthur had 9 direct great aunts and uncles some of whom he would have known and remembered in his teenage years. Amongst these and their progeny there were at least a further 3 practising clergymen actively carrying out their duties in Bishop Auckland.

Family grave at St Nicholas’ churchyard, Halewood, Merseyside

Bishop Auckland is where the Rev. Thomas’ son, Dr. Thomas Alexander McCullagh, became well-known in the town and was great friends with the then Bishop of Durham, Dr. Hesley Henson.

The pen portraits included in his obituary (below) provide an indication of his colourful character and his stature in the local community.

Then, Bishop Auckland was not as prosperous as it now appears although it was due to undergo rapid expansion during the Industrial Revolution. In the 19C and first part of the 20C it was a mining town. Wikipedia offers a very comprehensive description of it at that time:

‘By 1851 the population of the town had more than doubled to 5,112,^[7] with a great proportion of them working in ironworks and collieries.^[9] By 1891, the population had doubled again.^[61] In the second half of the nineteenth century there were typically around 60 collieries in the area open at any one time.^[62] By the turn of the twentieth century 16,000 people were employed in the mining industry in the area.^[63]

The town also became an important centre for rail, with large amounts of minerals such as coal, limestone and ironstone mined in the surrounding area passing through the town on the way to the coast.^[64] In the neighbouring town of Shildon large numbers were employed in the railways, where a railway engine works was eee777^established.

Industrial decline

By the early years of the twentieth century coal mining started to go into decline as coal reserves started to become exhausted. By the end of the 1920s unemployment had hit 27% and the population too had started to decline, as colliery employment had halved compared with ten years previously.^[66][67] With the onset of the Great Depression unemployment rose to 60% in 1932 before easing back to 36% in 1937.^[67] The Second World War offered a temporary reprieve for the coal industry, however, after the war the decline continued.’

Market Place, Bishop Auckland   Photo Credit : Keith Smith

Life was hard in the mines and several miners were driven to record working conditions above and below ground in their very accomplished artistic endeavours.

Miners’ paintings displayed at the Mining Art Gallery   Photo Credit : Keith Smith

Self-taught artist Norman Cornish hints at the life and living conditions of the miners of Bishop Auckland

Photo Credit : Keith Smith

Arthur’s father, Arthur Cecil Hays McCullagh, was a doctor and surgeon in the tradition of his own father, Thomas Alexander McCullagh.

Arthur’s maternal side of his family descended from Wolsey Kane born in Armagh in 1814, who became a lawyer in Bishop Auckland. Wolsey’s son, Thomas A B Kane, was also a lawyer and born in Armagh, and was christened ‘Beresford’.

A sad event occurred when in 1894 Arthur’s grandmother may have died aged 21yrs, whilst giving birth to his mother Lucretia I. Beresford McCullagh (Kane). Childbirth was considered more of a risk at the end the 19C than it is today (then there was a 1 in 18 chance that the mother might die in childbirth). At some point in his early life Arthur must have been made aware of this tragedy which would have had some lasting effect on the family as a whole.

So without too much research it has been discovered that Arthur had a generous smattering of the professional classes in his family tree - principally clerics, medics and lawyers. This could most likely explain why he was sent away, indeed expected, to attend Charney Hall as a boarder, a private school located to the southwest on the northern shores of Morecambe Bay, some 70 miles distant. 

Being sent to boarding school (or ‘preparatory school’ as it was also known) sent a subliminal message to the pupil that education was no longer considered inconsequential - it was without any doubt, serious business. In the medium term it would have been necessary to commit family financial resources to a planned formal education which would continue, at the very least, for 13 more years. At the end of which time it was anticipated, rather expected, that the child would emerge as a mature adult, of at least 21 years of age, who would join the professional ranks, enter the ministry or military, grow the family business or enter public service. 

For the pupil, the responsibility of fullfilling this tacit agreement was enormous and there would bound to be casualties along the way. For Arthur, his generation, and others who were some years older, WW2 would become an inevitable and unwelcome distraction demanding even more commitment than would normally have been anticipated at that particular time in life.

And so it came to pass that Arthur, having only just left Charney Hall School for Boys and the sleepy coastal town of Grange-over-Sands in 1939, was summoned to serve his country in March 1944.

McCullagh Arthur Beresford Kane - Service Card

No.14491612 McCullagh Arthur Berisford K. was enlisted into the Armed Forces on 15 March 1944 and it would appear assigned to 35 RA (Royal Artillery)Training Regt. (Signals) at Rhyl on the 27 December 1944, aged 18yrs. The above service card is at times confusing to say the least, but the following posts are set out in an attempt to provide more clarity:

1.   15.03.44  35 RA  Regt (Signals)

2.   13.02.45. Y List 

3.   25.09.45  120 F Regt.

4.   24.10.45  … RAT HK India  …

5.   15.11.45  X List (4) India

6.   17.03.46  R.A. Depot Deolali

7.   18.05.46  178 F(Field) Regt.

8.   03.10.46   114 F Regt.

9.   30.12.46   27 F Regt.

10.  01.04.47   25 F Regt.

11.  05.01.48  Y List (Y)

12.  26.03.48  Z T Res. 

13.  09.04.54 C of A to CAIAA  Z/T Res.

5.   Deolali is a town located in central western India. The Depot, a British outpost, was originally designed for the acclimatisation of soldiers, housing new arrivals and those awaiting transport back to Britain. In this instance the initials ‘R.A.’ appear to represent ‘Royal Artillary’ and so it must be assumed that Arthur was to be trained in that particular role . The Depot also served as a hospital for prisoners-of-war during both world wars.

Interestingly the term ‘doolally’ originated from the camp and the military hospital associated with it. It was here that the soldiers suffering from the mental distress of combat were transferred prior to being repatriated.

1, 4 and 10.   ‘X’ and ‘Y’ Lists : X Lists recorded personel who were temporarily absent from their regular units for various reasons. Y Lists typically referred to individuals who were posted back to UK due to serious illness, wounds or prisoners of war returning home. It is not recorded whether Arthur was either ill, wounded or was a prisoner of war.

11, 12.   Z/T Reserves. This refers to a soldier in the final phase of release who was either under temporary administrative control or awaiting final paperwork.

2, 3, 6-9.   These were the various Field Regiments that Arthur was assigned to between September1945 - April 1947. 

The end of the WW2 in Europe was declared on 8 May 1945 and that in India and Burma in August 1945. It is apparent that Arthur was released from the Army around January 1948 although it is recorded that he was retained in the Military Reserves just in case….

However It wasn’t many more years after his release from the Royal Artillery that Arthur McCullagh would have applied and been accepted at Charney Hall as a master. Many former soldiers, airmen and sailors must have found themselves in exactly the same position. Inevitably there would have been stiff competition for jobs in teaching so an Oxbridge/university education would have had a distinct advantage. Teacher training was in its infancy and time was of the essence as most people of fighting age who had survived the atrocities of war, had also lost at least 6 years of some of the best years of their productive lives.

In hindsight we were made aware of the Majors, Captains and other commissioned ranks who metamorphosed into masters in private schools as their rank was always referred to in their titles. It will never be known whether this was an attempt to ‘pull rank’ or just a post-war tradition of the time. There were many others who did not let it be known whether they had been privates, corporals or sergeants, whose military skill and prowess had not been fully recognised in the World War. However, to the school boy, this did indicate that they had not been promoted to the dizzy heights of officer status. 

One of our 1950s masters - see his Charney Hall Post

Credit : Keith Smith

Arthur McCullagh was one such candidate. However he had an ace card, a distinct advantage over other well qualified applicants…..He was a former pupil at Charney Hall School, whose modus operandi he was well versed in and whose joint headmasters, Messrs. Duncan and Hirst, who were formerly his teachers, had metamophosed into his employers - at a school at which he had once excelled academically.

‘The rest’, as they say, ‘is history’ which is duly appreciated in Tilak Paul’s earlier post in appreciation of John McCullagh….

https://www.thesilverbowl.com/familytree/familytree.html - some interesting references concerning the McCullaghs and Beresfords of Irish descent. They must all be related by some tenuous ancestral links!

One or two prompts for further reminiscences from another Old Boy…

• He was a chain smoker of Dunhill cigarettes.
• He would occasionally have to do morning "Prayers" in the Hall and his enthusiasm for that was demonstrated by his blasting through the wording at a rate that made the mind spin, followed by a micro pause then "Amen". We were all happy to have that all over with.
• He had a grey Hillman Hunter car and the ashtray was always overflowing.
• I seem to remember him telling lurid stories about his time in the Army in the dying days of WW2 in Asia, but I don't know if he was old enough for that to be true.
  Something about brothels in Singapore......
• I ran into him many years later by accident in the mid 1990s at the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway. He wasn't looking well, and I think he might have lost one of his feet from diabetes or something. He was one of the Board of Directors or something. He is well remembered by that organization (my Dad is part of it).
• We all called him "Muck" because everyone needed a nickname.
• Goodness knows how he and Mr Fawcett got on together when they took over the ownership of the school when Mr Duncan retired. I got the feeling they were very different people.