Tyne Cot Memorial
Tyne Cot Memorial: Pauline Priano
Colin C. McMillan has provided the following:
John was born in Alnwick in or about 1883. There are two entries for a John Black at Alnwick in the records of Births, Marriages and Deaths. The first is registration in the Jan. Feb. March quarter of 1883 (10b 384), the second is registration in the Oct. Nov. Dec. quarter of 1883 (10b 364). Which of these is the J. Black on the YMCA plaque is impossible to tell without a birth certificate, but it does confirm his birth year as being 1882-3.
On the census of 1891 he is shown as living at Sheepwash Mill, Sheepwash, only 3 or 4 miles from Morpeth. The 8-year old John was a “scholar”, living with his parents and had a brother, James, who was 5 and was also born in Alnwick. John’s father, James senior, was a 47-year old miller who was born in Scotland and his mother, Isabella, is 32, not employed and was born in Lowick, Northumberland.
Ten years later at the time of the 1901 census, the 18-year old John was still living with his parents who had by then moved to 35 Bridge Street, Morpeth. The family now included two additional children: Jane aged 8 and Isabella, 3. Jane was born in Bedlington so it is possible that the family still lived at Sheepwash at the time of her birth, as Sheepwash was in the sub-registration district of Bedlington. Isabella however, was born in Morpeth, so it seems the family moved to the town after the birth of Jane but before Isabella was born, that is between 1893 and1898. James, the 54-year old head of the household was still a flour miller and the 41-year old Isabella didn’t work. John was a carpenter and joiner’s apprentice while his brother, the 15-year old James was a tailor’s apprentice.
By the 1911 census, although still living at 35 Bridge Street, several changes had taken place: the head of the household was now a 44-year old John Davison, born in Felton and working as a brewer drayman. John Black’s mother, now Isabella Davison, was 49 (a two year discrepancy here, as according to the previous census she should be 51) and was described as being born in Chatton, whereas earlier information gave her birth place as Lowick. 28-year old John was a joiner while 25-year old James and 18-year old Jane were no longer living with them. Isabella junior, now 13, had no employment status and was probably still at school. Another member of the household was 16-year old Hannah Davison, daughter of John Davison and worked as a “domestic servant, general”.
In the September quarter of births, marriages and deaths 1913, John married Mary Elizabeth Watson.
In the Morpeth Herald 04/12/1914 a list was published of the names of the men who had volunteered for war service since September that year. J. Black was on the list. No other details of the men were given.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission shows that John was tragically killed on 4 November 1918, exactly a week before the Armistice. He was a private, number 157135 in 41st company of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry). His memorial reference is Panel 154 to 159 and 163A of the Tyne Cot Memorial. He has no known grave.
In an article from the Morpeth Herald 06/12/1918, the now Mary Elizabeth Black was living at 13 Auburn Place, Morpeth. Was this the house which John and Mary moved to after their marriage, and the home he left when he joined up and which he was destined never to return to?
When the CWGC began putting together the lists of war dead, Mary was living at 35 Hollon Street, High Stanners, Morpeth.
John Black is remembered in Morpeth on M17.01, M17.09, M17.18 and M17.29
