GRANDFATHER JOSEPH CULLEN

My grandfather Joseph married Emily McKinney on the second of January 1914 with Joseph's brother Samuel and Emily's sister Lizzie as witnesses. Joseph was a musician in the 4th Manchester Regiment, Private 2432. Unfortunately his army records have not survived, but his regiment did see service at Gallipoli during the First World War.

Emily was the daughter of William McKinney and Catherine Herson born on the 7th January 1888. Her father's rank or profession was that of Butler at The College, Armagh. The College is now known as The Royal or Classical School. I don't think that my grandmother had much of an education, but present at her birth was a Mary Gillen (Catherine's sister?) who could only make her mark when the birth was registered.

When Joseph and Emily first married they continued to live with her parents at 3 Lonsdale Street, Armagh because this is the address given for the birth of their first child Kathleen born on the 24th November 1914. Present at the birth was a Lizzie McLelland (could this be Emily's sister who had now married?)

My father Herbert Joseph was born on the 4th June 1917.

By this time the family are living at Winder Place. See the picture on the right, Winder Place is the row of terraced cottages in the centre of the picture. You can also see St Patrick's R C Cathedral in the background where great grandfather James Cullen is buried.

By 1920 the family are stationed at Ladysmith Barracks, Ashton-u-Lyne, Lancashire where my uncle William James was born.

Next came my aunty Winefred Constance also born at the Barracks on the 18th August 1922.

I think that my grandfather then came out of the army, they went back to Armagh to live and the family struggled quite badly. My Uncle Bill remembers that at one stage they lived at 'The Folly' which must have been round about the time when great grandfather James died in 1926. I remember my father talking with fondness about his memories of 'The Folly'.

My aunty Thelma was born in Armagh on the 27th April 1928, but when she was six month's old the family emmigrated to Ashton-u-Lyne to live at 211 Katherine Street, now the site of Bristol Motors, Ashton. When he left the army my grandfather had a cobbler's shop, a trade he must have learned from his father.