Daily tremors and volcanic fears fail to take away from sweet memories and images of Santorini

Picture postcard images of Santorini at Souv-Lucky Day, selling Greek street food in Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

The news from Santorini each day is distressing and heartbreaking, with tremors and high magnitude earthquakes almost daily in the Aegean waters surrounding the island. Santorini is one of major tourist destinations in Greece and the island’s economy depends on tourism.

Seismic activities in the area have brought more than 20,000 tremors since late over the past month, many of them over 4 or even 5 on the Richter scale.

This looks like being a bleak summer for the people of Santorini. All the early tourists on the island have been evacuated, along with many workers in the tourist sector. Schools have been closed for weeks now, and many shops, businesses, restaurants and hotels show no signs of opening in the weeks ahead, and plans for the summer season are on hold.

Nobody, so far, is actually saying that a volcanic eruption is possible. But, because of the increase in seismic activity, the Greek authorities declared a state of emergency for the island on 6 February, and it remains in effect until at least next Monday (3 March).

Santorini is a small volcanic island but it is one of Greece’s most popular tourist attractions, and is visited by about 3.5 million tourists each year. Tourism is the mainstay of the economy of Santorini and a major sector in the Greek economy. But the present seismic activities leave island businesses not knowing how or whether they can run this year.

The tremors have resulted in a significant drop in bookings ahead of this year’s summer session, according to the newspaper, To Vima. The Finance Ministry says a rescue package will be put in place for the island if the seismic activity persists for an extended period. But a prolonged seismic threat could lead to cancellations, reduced visitor numbers and revenue losses. This could also have a dire knock-on effect on other sectors, including agriculture and commerce.

Images of Santorini in Eating Greek on Church Street, Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Santorini is unrivalled as the most photographed island in Greece and is the face of Greece to the rest of the world. Images of Santorini probably outnumber even images of the Acropolis in Athens, Knossos or Mykonos on the walls of Greek restaurants and cafés throughout England and Ireland, making it a significant selling-point for Greek tourism.

With its cubist white houses and blue doors and domes, steep grey volcanic cliffs and deep blue sea waters, Santorini has become stereotypical picture-postcard Greece. For example, images of Santorini decorate the Greek restaurants and food outlets throughout Milton Keynes, including Souv-Lucky Day, which sells the best of Greek street food in Midsummer Place, Eating Greek on Church Street, Wolverton, Apollonia in Newport Pagnell, and, further afield, Deja Vu Restaurant in Northampton.

Those blue domes complement the blue skies and blue seas are often the first images that captivate potential visitors when they are dreaming about and planning a package holiday in Greece. And when they tourists return home, these posters, postcards, coasters, calendars and fridge magnets decorate their homes as a reminder to return again.

An image of Santorini by Georges Meis, bought in Rethymnon (click on image for full-screen resolution) …

… is based on one of his well-known original photographs

Anyone who has ever been on holiday in Greece is familiar with the work Georges Meis as a photographer, even if they do not remember his name. His exceptional photographs of stunning Greek Island scenery, especially Santorini, Mykonos and Crete, are easy to recognise and have been reproduced on thousands of those keepsakes sold throughout Greece.

Georges Meis also captures wild primary colours, fading doors, mesmerising sunsets and gnarled and dignified faces of old people who know every joy and every hardship that modern Greece has endured. Each year, without fail, I buy countless copies of his photographs in calendars or on postcards – not to send to family and friends but just as keepsakes and memories.

The 3,000 bare, rocky outcrops in the blue Aegean are his raw material as an artist. His eye, how he frames and catches old doors, narrow steps, inviting alleyways and the domes of churches, and the way he uses panoramic opportunities to provide vistas of harbours, bays and island shorelines have inspired my own efforts to take photographs in Crete.

A second image of Santorini by Georges Meis, bought in Rethymnon (click on image for full-screen resolution) …

… is based on another of his well-known original photographs

His panoramic photographs were considered avant garde when they were first published. It was the first time that photographs taken from an angle of 360 degrees were presented in compositions such as these. It is so easy to forget how revolutionary and influential he has been now that we all have apps that allow us to take panoramic photographs with our iPhones.

He became known for his series of postcards but also attracted international attention for his unique presentations of the Greek islands – particularly Crete, Rhodes, the Cycladic and Aegean islands such as Santorini and Mykonos, and Dodecanese islands including Rhodes and Symi – and mainland Greece too.

His book Land of Crete, Land of the First European Civilisation (2000) took six years to produce, from 1994 to 2000. This was followed by two other coffee table books – Thera or Santorini, Born from Tephra (2006) and The Diamonds of the Aegean (2007) – are then by his second album on the island, Crete – Mother of the European Civilisation (2014).

Some years ago, browsing through the shop at the Fortezza in Rethymnon during my few weeks in Crete, I added to my collection of photographs and postcards by Georges Meis when I bought two ‘canvas-effect’ images based on his photographs taken in Santorini.

They evoked sweet memories of a visit to Santorini about 40 years ago, and for five years those images were framed and hanging in Saint Mary’s Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick, alongside other posters, photographs and paintings.

Wines from Santorini on a supermarket shelf in Platanias in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I still recall with pleasure that late sunny Sunday afternoon on Santorini in the late 1980s. I had arrived from Crete the previous day, and had spent the two days visiting villages, churches, monasteries and beaches across the island.

Late that afternoon, I was sitting on a terrace in Fira on the steep volcanic cliffs, trying to write a little and sipping a glass of white wine. Behind me, on another terrace above, someone was playing Mozart in the background. Below me, the horseshoe-shaped volcanic cliffs fell down to the blue Aegean sea, and out to the west the sun was about to set beyond the neighbouring islands of Nea Kameni, Palea Kameni and Therasia.

It was one of those moments in time that provide a glimpse of eternity. Late that night, I flew on to Athens. When I got back to Crete later that week, I bought a poster with its painting of Oia on Santorini by a local artist, Manolis Sivridakis. I also bought a smaller copy of another of his paintings, ‘Daybreak Santorini.’

Those images hung on the walls of two houses in Dublin, and for many years they continued to bring back memories of the sounds, sights, tastes, smells and thoughts of that sunny afternoon in Santorini.

‘Oia’ by Manolis Sivridakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Manolis Sivridakis has run the Oia Gallery on the northern tip of the island as well as a studio in Athens.

Oia is a nest of narrow lanes and streets lined with characteristic white-washed houses of the Cycladic islands, and many of the white-washed churches have blue domes. Throughout the final days of Ottoman occupation, before Greek Independence, flying the Greek flag was prohibited, but the island was a riotous statement of defiance, with the blue-and-white of Greece sparkling everywhere in the sunshine.

When an earthquake hit Santorini in 1956, parts of Oia were destroyed as they fell into the sea. Many of the buildings that remain are built into the volcanic rock on the slopes of the crater wall. The narrow streets above are filled with souvenir shops and artists’ galleries.

‘Daybreak Santorini’ by Manolis Sivridakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My first booking for a one-day visit to Santorini in the mid-1980s was cancelled when the coach to the ferry never turned up in Rethymnon. I managed to get there the following year. Since the 1980s, I have been back in Greece countless times, returning virtually every year – and sometimes two or three times a year. I have visited 30 or 40 islands over almost 40 years, and I plan to be back in Crete once again for Easter this April.

Each time I amy flying to or from Crete, I find myself picking out the islands in Aegean below, including Saintorini, and each time I am back in Crete I think of returning to Santorini. I changed my mind at the last moment last April; now I doubt that I shall get there this year … I have only a few days, and the continuing tremors and fears of a volcanic eruption have dispelled any suggestions of a day trip. But, doubtless, I shall sip some wine from Santorini, buy some more black, volcanic soap, and return with photographs, prints or calendars by by Georges Meis.

And I shall smile as I recall those fond, lingering memories of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Santorini … and the sunsets and daybreaks.

Blue skies and blue seas … flying over Santorini and the Aegean on a flight from Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s, Soho Square, was first built for poor Irish Catholics living in squalid slums in London

Saint Patrick’s Church on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parish churches in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

As I was walking around Soho Square recently, in search of Soho’s Jewish history and of local architectural landmarks, I also visited the two churches on the square: Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and the French Protestant Church.

Saint Patrick’s on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parishes in London, and the original church on the site was the first Catholic place of worship to open in London after the Roman Catholic Relief Acts were passed in 1778 and 1791 and the first post-Reformation church in England dedicated to Saint Patrick.

The first church on the site was in a building behind Carlisle House and was consecrated in 1792. The present church, built in 1891-1893, is a Grade II* listed building designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly.

Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly and built in 1891-1893 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Catholic martyrs on their way to execution at Tyburn in the 16th and 17th centuries, were given their last drink in Saint Giles’s and were buried in the churchyard of Saint Giles-in-the-Fields. The last of these martyrs, Saint Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, was executed at Tyburn in 1681.

Several embassies were in Soho in the 18th century, and they had private chapels where Catholics attended Mass. The French Embassy and chapel were in Greek Street in the 1730s; the Neapolitan Embassy and chapel were at 13 Soho Square for a time; and 21 Soho Square housed the Spanish Embassy and chapel in the 1770s, although it later became the White House, an unsavoury hotel and high-class brothel.

Carlisle House was built in 1690 as the town house of the Earl of Carlisle. It was leased in the 1760s by Teresa Cornelys, a Venetian adventuress and sometime opera singer, whose former lovers included Casanova. The house was a venue for masquerade balls, operas and recitals until she was fined for staging operas without a licence. The old mansion was demolished in 1788 and two houses, 21a and 21b Soho Square, were built on the site.

The number of Catholics living in the area rose significantly in the 18th century, with thousands of Irish immigrants living around the Rookery, a squalid slum on the edge of Soho often called ‘Little Ireland’ or ‘Little Dublin’. In response to their plight, the Confraternity of Saint Patrick was founded in October 1791 by a group of prosperous Irish Catholics who wanted to acquire Carlisle House and convert it into a chapel.

The monument to Father Arthur O’Leary in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Father Arthur O’Leary (1729-1802), a celebrated Irish Capuchin preacher and controversialist who was staying at Wardour Street, raised the funds to lease Carlisle House. He was born in Fanlobbus, Dunmanway, Co Cork. He was educated by the Capuchins in Saint Malo, where he was ordained and spent 24 years as a prison chaplain. He returned to Cork in 1777 and his preaching soon attracted large numbers. He played a key role in the ‘Paper War’, arguing for Catholic Emancipation, and later supported the Act of Union as a means to Catholic emancipation.

Father O’Leary moved to London and he was a chaplain at the Spanish Embassy from 1789 until he died. His social circle included Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Charles James Fox.

O’Leary acquired a 62-year lease on the property on Soho Square, and the chapel was solemnly opened on 29 September 1792. Bishop John Douglass (1743-1812) presided at the Mass and Father O’Leary preached the sermon.

A statue of Saint Patrick in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Father Daniel Gaffey became the chaplain of the new church, but for many years it continued to be known as ‘Father O’Leary’s Chapel’. Its fittings included a painting of the Crucifixion by Van Dyck or a pupil. The organ was built by Robert and William Gray in 1793 and the early organists included Vincent Novello, the musician, composer and music publisher.

When Pope Pius VI died in captivity in France in 1799 a prisoner of Napoleon, the papal envoy in London, Cardinal Charles Erskine (1739-1811), chose Saint Patrick’s for the official papal requiem. The Mass began at 10 in the morning and finished at 3:30 in the afternoon, with Father O’Leary preaching. O’Leary died a few years later in January 1802, aged 72, and was buried in Old Saint Pancras Churchyard.

The most densely crowded part of Saint Giles’s Rookery was demolished in the 1840s to make way for New Oxford Street. The number of very poor Catholics then numbered about 10,000 people. Most lived in the part of the Rookery that remained, south of New Oxford Street around Church Lane, until this too was demolished later in the 19th century.

The High Altar and sanctuary in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The original Saint Patrick’s Chapel was in an unsafe conditions when it was demolished in 1889. The present church, designed by John Kelly of Leeds, was built on the site in 1891-1893.

John Kelly (1840-1904) and Edward Birchall (1839-1903) were partners in Kelly and Birchall, an architectural practice in Leeds from 1886 to 1904, specialising in churches in the Italianate and Gothic Revival styles. Kelly’s other churches include Saint Alban and Saint Stephen in St Albans, Hertfordshire (1903).

Kelly made the fullest use of the available space on a narrow site as he skilfully planned the interior, and his church transformed the site.

The church was built in the Italian Renaissance style with small-gauge dark red brick, with rubbed brick detail. It has a west campanile tower, vestibule, antechapel, aisled, apsidal sanctuary and south chapel. The main entrance has a Roman-style porch with Corinthian columns. Above the entrance is the inscription: Ut Christiani ita et Romani sitis (‘Be ye Christians as those of the Roman Church’), a quotation from the writings of Saint Patrick.

Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The main entrance has a portico in Portland stone, with Corinthian columns and pilasters, and the Papal tiara and keys set into the pediment. This forms the base of the imposing 125 ft high campanile that rises in arcaded stages. A niche in the tower has a statue of Saint Patrick by Boulton and Sons.

The tower, the main body of the church and the narthex are built in red brick. A blind arcade forms the north wall of the nave along Sutton Street (now Sutton Row) with a clerestory and another blind arcade above. The octagonal vestibule at the bottom of the campanile, and the antechapel beyond it, occupy the entire width of the old presbytery.

Inside, the church has an elegant, light and airy nave without aisles. The round-headed arches are separated by tall Corinthian pilasters that form shallow recesses along the sides. These bays accommodate a series of side chapels, shrines and the confessionals.

A plain-glassed clerestory runs along the north and south sides of the nave and along the west end wall over the gallery, and the west wall has a large, round window. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is coffered. The nave ends in an apsidal sanctuary, the two separated by marble altar rails with intricately carved, pierced panels.

The Baptistry in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The high altar is built of white marble with amber marble panels. The two tiers of the apse wall, above and below the cornice, are ornamented with Corinthian pilasters. The arch and domed ceiling of the sanctuary are ribbed and panelled, in the same manner as the nave.

The iron and brass tabernacle from the old chapel was adapted to the new high altar. The Gray organ had been rebuilt by Hill in 1882 and was installed on the left of the sanctuary.

The Stations of the Cross from the old chapel were re-erected in the nave. The former high altar was used in Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel, with the altarpiece of the Crucifixion. Phyffers’s Pietà and the Mater Dolorosa attributed to Dolci were in the same chapel, along with a relic of Saint Oliver Plunkett.

The elaborate, neo-Renaissance Carrara marble altar in Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel, at the west end of the nave on the south side, was donated to the church in 1892.

The 18th-century Carrara marble Pietà in the vestibule (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The 18th-century Carrara marble Pietà in the vestibule features an angel holding the body of Christ. A large mural memorial commemorating Father O’Leary, with his portrait carved in relief, was re-erected in the antechapel on the right. I also noticed a copy of Murillo’s ‘Mater Dolorosa’ at the back of the church, below the gallery.

The church holds several old pre-Reformation vestments, including chasubles once used in the private chapel of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. Their original embroidery and orphreys have been restored and, 500 years later, they are still worn on special occasions.

During the Blitz, a German bomb penetrated the church roof on 19 November 1940, struck a pier on the south side of the nave and hit the floor, but failed to detonate.

A copy of Murillo’s ‘Mater Dolorosa’ at the back of the church, below the gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Many alterations have been made to Kelly’s church since it was built. The old Stations of the Cross were replaced by ones in cast relief, the former high altar was moved to the Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel, and the altar to Saint Anthony of Padua in the antechapel dates from the 1920s.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the first Catholic television evangelist, was a regular preacher in Saint Patrick’s from the 1920s to the 1960s. He once described himself as the ‘unappointed curate of the Parish’ and often stayed in the parish house.

In the 1960s, in response to the reforms following the Second Vatican Council, the high altar was adapted from the mensa of the original and brought forward to a lower position, leaving the reredos in situ.

Saint Patrick’s Church was renovated and refurbished at a cost of £4 million in 2010-2011. During the renovations, Mass was celebrated nearby in the Chapel of Saint Barnabas, at the House of Saint Barnabas.

Today, only a handful of resident Catholics remains in the parish. Hundreds of people continue to attend Saint Patrick’s Church, but they are mostly visitors, tourists and people working in the area. The church continues to attract immigrants and migrant workers from across London, and Mass is regularly celebrated in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Looking out on Soho Square from Saint Patrick’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A Victorian clock inspired by Lichfield Cathedral remains on display in the old grammar school

The Cathedral Clock in the style of Lichfield Cathedral by Charles Thorneloe (1805-1885), on display in the old grammar school (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

The ‘house warmer’ hosted by Lichfield Discovered in the Old Grammar School, Saint John Street, last week was a joyful celebration and was an opportunity to meet many old friends. But it was also an opportunity to visit the premises of Lichfield District Council, and to see many of the historic exhibits on display.

One of the (literally) striking exhibits is labelled as a ‘Golden Clock for a Great Exhibition’. The Cathedral Clock is a cased striking clock made in the style of Lichfield Cathedral by Charles Thorneloe (1805-1885) of Tamworth Street and later of Bore Street for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

The Victorian clock is a reminder of the artistic craft work in Lichfield almost 200 years ago. It was described in the exhibition catalogue as a ‘Gothic Skeleton Clock which strikes quarters and goes 32 days. Lichfield Cathedral.’

The Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park attracted 13,000 exhibitors from around the world. It was a celebration of Victorian progress and invention, showcasing the finest technologies from around the world, and was divided into over 30 different classes of objects, ranging from mining and minerals to the latest weaponry.

Charles Thorneloe was exhibitor number 43 among the 739 exhibitors who made up Class 10, Philosophical, Musical, Horological, and Surgical Instruments. He was a well-respected clockmaker and watchmaker based at Tamworth Street and later on Bore Street. His ornate striking clock at the Great Exhibition was designed in the shape of Lichfield Cathedral and displayed his skills as both a metal worker and a clockmaker.

There are records of watchmakers working in Lichfield since at least in 1741, and by 1818 there were five watch and clockmakers, including William Vale in Bore Street, still working in 1841. Edmund Vale was a brass founder employing 15 men and five boys in 1861 and was one of five clockmakers in Lichfield in 1864.

The Thorneloe family in Lichfield can be traced for more 300 years back to Richard Thorneloe and his wife Mary Bell. They had moved from Lancashire by 1705, when their first son, Richard Thorneloe (1705-1749), the ancestor of this family, was born in Lichfield.

Richard Thorneloe’s son, William Thorneloe (1733-1810), was born in Lichfield in 1733 and married Mary Bailes in Saint Michael’s Church, Lichfield, in 1770. Their son, Thomas Thorneloe (1771-1846), was born in Lichfield in 1771. He married Ann Knight (1769-1827) in Coventry in 1797, and they were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters, including Charles Thorneloe, who was born in Lichfield in September 1805 and was baptised in Saint Chad’s Church on 8 October 1805.

Charles Thorneloe married Sarah Saunders (1797-1861) in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, on 15 September 1831. By 1834, he was in business as a brass founder and clockmaker in Tamworth Street. He designed and manufactured clocks for over 30 years, and also served as a mentor to clockmakers.

After displaying his skills to the world at the Crystal Palace, Thorneloe returned to Lichfield with his clock. He continued to work at Tamworth Street as a clockmaker and watchmaker, but later moved the business to 25 Bore Street. He was the Mayor of Lichfield in 1861, the year his wife Sarah died.

Charles Thorneloe died on 21 December 1885. Although his siblings had children, whose descendants continued to live in Lichfield in the 20th century, Charles had no children. His business was taken over by John Salloway, who had worked as an apprentice clockmaker to Thorneloe in Tamworth Street from 1861.

John Salloway died in 1900, leaving the business to his brother William Salloway and wife Harriet Salloway. Harriet continued to run the shop and shifted the focus to jewellery and silver. Following a distinguished military career, William’s son, Frank Salloway took over the business in 1922 and eventually passed the baton on to his son John Salloway.

John and Mary Salloway were the parents of Nigel Salloway, who joined the company full time in 1984 and became the fourth generation of the family to run the firm. Salloways traded as a family-run business in Lichfield until 2018, when plans were announced to close shop.

When Nigel Salloway decided to retire, he told the local media that none of his three children wanted to take over the business. ‘Salloway has been a part of my life, man and boy. It’s going to be a very sad day when we finally close the doors,’ he said at the time.’

Meanwhile, Thorneloe’s striking clock designed in the shape of Lichfield Cathedral for the Great Exhibition was acquired by Lichfield District Council in 1983, and was put on display in the District Council House. It continues to impress people to this day, and it is a reminder of one of Lichfield’s finest craftsmen.

The old grammar school is the new home of Lichfield Discovered (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, the street that was supposed to be named Comerford Avenue

Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945) was a publishing heir and a World War I battle hero … his grandfather gave his (misspelled) name to Camerford Avenue in Hollywood

Patrick Comerford

The wildfires in California have devastated large areas of Los Angeles and Hollywood in the past week or so and have dominated television news and newspaper reports in the US and around the world.

Many of the street names in Hollywood and Los Angeles in these reports have drawn my attention to the name of Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, and have reminded me that this street was originally supposed to be named Comerford Avenue, and how this is a misspelling.

The street is in a plush residential part in Los Angeles, just west of Paramount Pictures and close to Sunset Boulevard and the heart of old Hollywood. Many of the street names there, including Camerford Avenue, were created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by Senator Cornelius Cole in honour of the members of his extended family, including his grandson, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945).

The story of Comerford McLoughlin, Camerford Avenue and the street names of West Hollywood is the story of a family network in which the Comerford name continues for four or five generations, and that includes a senator who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and who once owned much of Hollywood; a publishing empire that pioneered children’s books and colour printing; an artist’s wife who had been a ‘society girl’ but whose tragic death by suicide became a nationwide sensation; her daughter who became a princess through her marriage to a Russian exile; and a publishing executive with Time and Fortune magazines.

Senator Cornelius Cole named Camerford Avenue in Hollywood after his grandson Comerford McLoughlin

Senator Cornelius Cole (1822-1945) was the founder of Colegrove, and named the area after himself. As he subdivided and developed the area at the beginning of the 20th century, Cole decided to name many of the streets after members of his own family.

In 1902, Cole decided to name one of these streets after his grandson, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945). But it is not clear whether Granddad Cole did not know how to spell his own grandson’s name correctly or that the people who first put up the street signs got the spelling wrong. In either case, no-one every corrected the mistake, and Camerford Avenue, home to the stars, never became Comerford Avenue, as it was intended to be.

Senator Cornelius Cole was a New York lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1948 and moved to California in 1849 at the height of gold rush. He first practised law in San Francisco and then in Sacramento.

Cole was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and soon became involved in politics. He founded the California Republican Party, and served on the Republican National Committee (1856-1860). He was District Attorney (1859-1862), and moved to Santa Cruz in 1862.

In 1863, Cole became the commander of a Santa Cruz cavalry troop raised for the Union Army during the Civil War and he was commissioned as a captain. He was a member of the US Congress for one term (1863-1865) and of the US Senate for one term (1867-1873), and chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee (1871-1873).

As an attorney, Cole helped the brothers Henry and John Hancock secure their title to Rancho La Brea, and in payment received 483 acres of the ranch. He retired to his ranch in 1880, and in 1887, he began subdividing it as the town of Colegrove. The name was a reference to his own family name but also the family name of his wife Olive (1833-1918), which was also Colegrove.

Cornelius Cole intended to name Camerford Avenue in Hollywood after his grandson Comerford McLoughlin (Google Maps)

Cornelius Cole honoured many of his relatives with street names in Hollywood, including Gregory Avenue, named after his grandson, the artist Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954) and Camerford Avenue, which he intended to name after his 11-year-old grandson Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945).

The town of Colegrove was annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1909, and was renamed Hollywood. Some of Cole’s original street names were lost in renaming in the years that followed.

Olive Avenue, named after his wife, is now Romaine Street; Schuyler Avenue, named after one of his sons Schuyler Colfax Cole (1865-1926), is now La Mirada Avenue; Emelita Avenue, recalling his daughter Emma Cole Brown (1854-1926), became Lexington Avenue; while Townsend Street, named after Cole’s mother, is now Cahuenga Boulevard, the ‘heart of old Hollywood’, connecting Sunset Boulevard in the heart of old Hollywood to the Hollywood Hills and North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley.

On the other hand, many of Cole’s original street names have survived: Cole Street, Cole Avenue and Cole Place; Seward Street and Willoughby Avenue, for two more sons; Waring Avenue for Cole’s daughter Lucretia Cole Waring (1860-1953); Eleanor Avenue for his daughter-in-law and granddaughter; and the misspelled Camerford Avenue, as well as Barton Avenue and Gregory Avenue, named after his grandsons.

Oher original names that have survived from Cole’s naming system include El Centro Avenue, for the centre of his ranch; Lodi Place, for his hometown of Lodi in New York; and Hollywood’s famous Vine Street, for his vineyard.

Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945) and his sister Cornelia in the 1920s … his grandfather gave his (misspelled) name to Camerford Avenue in Hollywood

Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, despite its incorrect spelling, was named in 1902 after one of Cole’s grandsons, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945), the second son of Cole’s daughter Cornelia (‘Nellie’), and his son-in-law, James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918).

Comerford McLoughlin was a publishing heir who was born in New York on 20 February 1891. As a lieutenant in World War I, he helped command the all-black 369th Infantry – the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ – and received the Distinguished Service Cross in 1923 for saving his men’s lives on the battlefield.

The citation said that while serving with 369th Infantry Regiment, 93d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, at Ripont, France, on 26 September 1918, Comerford McLoughlin was in command of a company during an assault on the enemy’s position. He ‘voluntarily exposed himself to a concentration of enemy machine-gun and artillery fire, made his way with great difficulty over rough and broken ground, and rescued his wounded battalion commander and his battalion adjutant and several wounded enlisted men, all of whom he carried to a dressing station, thus undoubtedly saving their lives.’ His ‘undaunted courage and devotion to duty’ inspired the men of his regiment ‘to great endeavours.’

Comerford McLoughlin lived in Rye, Westchester, New York. He drilled for oil around San Antonio, Texas, in the 1930s and returned to the US army during World War II, when he was posted to Germany. He died in the Bronx, New York, at the age of 54, on 20 August 1945, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, Greenburgh, Westchester. So far, I can find no records for any children of Comerford McLoughlin and his wife Catherine.

Gregory Avenue in Hollywood was similarly named by their grandfather after Comerford McLoughlin’s brother, Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954). Their sister, Cornelia Beekman Rylee (1893-1938), was the first woman in California to obtain a pilot’s license. But she missed out on having a Hollywood street named after her by her grandfather, and ‘Cornelia Street’, a track on Taylor Swift’s album Lover (2019) refers to a street in Greenwich Village, New York.

Gregory Avenue in Hollywood was named after Comerford McLoughlin’s brother, Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin

In the case of this family and the frequent use of the name Comerford is successive generations, so far I can only trace the use of use of the Comerford name in the McLoughlin family back to John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905), and can only trace the McLoughlin family back to his parents.

John McLoughlin (1790-1870) was born in Ireland, and it appears his mother may have been a member of the Comerford family. He emigrated to New York, perhaps though Scotland. He was an unemployed coachmaker when he entered the New York publishing industry in March 1819. While working with the Sterling Iron Company, he met Robert Hoe, who manufactured printing presses. He became interested in printing and began working for the New York Times in 1827. He bought a used printing press and type in 1828 and set up his own business, writing and published McLoughlin’s Books for Children, a collection of semi-religious tracts.

McLoughlin formed a partnership with Robert H Elton, a wood engraver, in 1840 to publish toy books, comic almanacs, and valentines under the name Elton and Co.

John McLoughlin and his wife […] Swaine were the parents of:

1, John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905).
2, Edmund McLoughlin (1833-1889). He married Martha E Gouldy (1832-1897) and died in New York on 17 October 1889. They were the parents of one son, Edmund McLoughlin jr.

The elder son:

John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905) was born in New York on 29 November 1827. As John McLoughlin jr, he was an apprentice to the firm of Robert H Elton. When the senior partners for Elton and Company retired in 1850, the son took over the firm. He changed the company name to John McLoughlin, Successor to Elton & Co.

He obtained the printing blocks of Edward Dunigan, a successful New York toy book publisher, and reissued Dunigan’s titles as the ‘Uncle Frank’ series. The books contained stories of British origin, mostly from Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott. McLoughlin eventually became the leading publisher of brightly hand-coloured paper toy books as well as games, alphabet cards, and valentines.

The company moved after the original factory burned, John McLoughlin’s brother, Edmund, became a partner in 1855, and the company expanded. The McLoughlin brothers had opened the largest colour printing factory in the US by 1870, and they introduced American children to Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane.

Edmund McLoughlin retired from the company in 1885 and died on 17 October 1889. John McLoughlin carried on the business with his sons, James Gregory and Charles. When John McLoughlin died in 1905, the firm the loss of his artistic and commercial leadership. His sons Charles and James Gregory took over the company. The company was sold to Milton Bradley, their chief competitor, in 1920. Today, McLoughlin books, games, Valentines, and other products are highly valued by collectors.

John Comerford McLoughlin married Ann Elizabeth Gregory (1835-1903). She was born on 24 January 1835 in Danbury, Connecticut, and died aged 68 on 15 May 1903 in New York; he died in New York aged 77 on 27 April 1905. They are buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut. They were the parents of at least three sons and four daughters, of whom three children survived into adulthood:

1, Susan McLoughlin (born 1849).
2, Thomas McLoughlin (born 1851).
3, Mary McLoughlin (born 1854).
4, James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918), of Philadelphia, of whom next.
5, Mary McLoughlin (1861-1887), of New York; she was born on 5 March 1861, and died aged 26 on 11 December 1887.
6, Charles Swaine McLoughlin (1863-1913), of New York; he was born on 6 July 1863, died aged 50 on 8 November 1913, and is buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut.
7, Katie McLoughlin (1870-1870), died in infancy.

The eldest surviving son was:

James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918), of Philadelphia. He was born on 28 March 1860 in Morrisania, a residential area in the Bronx, New York, and died aged 47 on 4 February 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was described as a publishing heir when he married Cornelia Cole (1863-1932) in Los Angeles on 3 October 1888. She was a daughter of Senator Cornelius Cole (1822-1924) and Olive A (Colegrove) Cole (1833-1888), of Hollywood, California. She was born on 1 June 1863, in Santa Cruz, California, and died in Los Angeles aged 69 on 19 October 1932.

James and Cornelia McLoughlin are buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut. They were the parents of four children, two sons and two daughter, who grew up wealthy New Yorkers who could have peopled the novels of F Scott Fitzgerald:

1, Olive Cole McLoughlin (born 1885), named after her maternal grandmother.
2, Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954), of whom next.
3, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945), was born New York on 20 February 1891. He married Catherine […] before 1945. He gave his name to Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, but lived in Rye, Westchester, New York, and Manhattan. He died in the Bronx aged 54 on 20 August 1945, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Greenburgh, Westchester.
4, Cornelia Cole Beekman Rylee (1894-1938), was born in Manhattan, New York, on 22 February 1894.

Gregory McLoughlin and Edwina Whitehouse at their wedding in Rye, New York, on 11 June 1913

The elder son of James and Cornelia McLoughlin was:

Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954), a landscape and still-life artist. He was born in Santa Monica on 27 September 1889, and educated at Harvard. He married Edwina Worthington Whitehouse (1894-1923) in Rye, New York, on 11 June 1913. Edwina was born on 5 January 1894, a daughter of Edward Whitehouse (1866-1899) and Constance Josephine Cozzens Sewell (1872-1957). She was 19 when she married and she was described at the time as a ‘society girl’.

Ten years after her marriage, on 2 November 1923, Edwina shot herself dead in Mount Kisco, Westchester. She was still not 30 and was the mother of three young children aged 9, 7 and 5. She left notes suggesting that, as a devotee of the Theosophical Society, she hoped to advance toward Nirvana, and that she believed her husband and his art career would be better off without her.

The tragic circumstances of her suicide made sensational news nationwide. The headline in the New York Times on 4 November 1923 declared: ‘Artist’s Wife Dies In Religious Mania; Mrs McLoughlin, Student of Theosophy, Thought She Was a Burden to Her Husband.’

Edwina and Gregory McLoughlin were the parents of three children:

1, (Princess) Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin (1914-1999). She was born in Briarcliff, New York, on 18 September 1914. She married Prince Alexis Pavlovich Scherbatow (1910-2003), a history professor, in 1941 and became Princess Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin or Принцесса Щербатов Кэтлин (Комерфорд Маклейфлин). She died aged 85 on 5 December 1999 and is buried at Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery, Jordanville, New York. She is the subject of a separate profile on the Comerford Family History site (26 June 2009).
2, Comerford Whitehouse McLoughlin (1916-1987), of whom next.
3, Cornelia Edwina Whitehouse McLoughlin (1918-2006). She was born on 10 October 1918 in Colorado Springs. She married Edgar Beach Van Winkle II (1916-2002) at Christ Episcopal Church in Rye, New York, on 12 January 1939. They were the parents of two children, including a daughter Edwina Whitehouse Van Winkle who married William Hall Lewis III in Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, on 13 March 1971. Edgar Beach Van Winkle died on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on 31 July 2002; Cornelia died aged 87 on 15 August 2006 in Oxford, Connecticut.

Edwina (Whitehouse) McLoughlin (1894-1923) with her children Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin (1914-1999), Comerford Whitehouse McLoughlin (1916-1987) and Cornelia Edwina McLoughlin (1918-1987) in a 1920s photograph

Gregory McLoughlin married his second wife Hope Patterson (1907-1983) in Manhattan on 5 May 1931. He died aged 64 in New York on 13 February 1954, and she died in Santa Monica on 29 April 1983. Although the censuses in 1940 and 1950 show Gregory and Hope living separately, her obituary named her as his widow. They were the parents of one daughter:

4, Hope McLoughlin, who died in 1997.

Gregory and his first wife Edwina are buried in Wooster Cemetery in Danbury, Connecticut. The Comerford name continued with their only son:

Comerford Whitehouse McLoughlin (1916-1987), of Southbury, Connecticut. He was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on 27 January 1916. He joined the staff of Time magazine in 1939. During World War II, he was a captain in the US army (1941-1945). He took part in the campaigns in Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe, and was decorated with the Bronze Star.

He was market merchandising manager with Fortune magazine. He retired from Time after 35 years with the organisation, and lived in retirement in Southbury, Connecticut.

He married Elizabeth Merrill (1918-1983), daughter of (Judge) Maurice P Merrill of Skowhegan, Maine, in 1942, and they were the parents of three children, including a daughter Cornelia Whitehouse McLoughlin, who married Stephen Edward Post in the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Southbury, in 1977.

Comerford McLoughlin died at the Westerley Hospital, Rhode Island, on 26 June 1987.

Prince Alexis Pavlovich Scherbatow (1910-2003), a Russian exile and history professor, married Princess Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin (1914-1999) in 1941

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 6, Monday 30 December 2024

The Presentation in the Temple and the Flight into Egypt … scenes from Christ’s childhood years in windows designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

This is the sixth day of Christmas, and the Hanukkah holiday continues today.

Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Christ Child in the Temple and the Holy Family in Nazareth … scenes from Christ’s childhood years in windows designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 2: 41-52 (NRSVA):

36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1850) by John Everett Millais

Today’s Reflection:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the six geese a-laying as figurative representations of the six days of Creation (see Genesis 1).

The Gospel reading yesterday, for the First Sunday Christmas (Luke 2: 41-52), jumped from the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable in Bethlehem on Christmas Day to the story of the teenage Christ who is lost in the Temple on this first Sunday after Christmas.

It may have left some people wondering what happened to the intervening years, between the story of the stable and Jesus at the age of 12?

Saint Luke gives no account of the exile in Egypt or Herod’s slaughter of the innocent children. Instead, after the circumcision and naming of Jesus eight days after his birth and his presentation in the Temple at 40 days, we are told Mary and Joseph returned with him to Galilee and their own town of Nazareth, and that ‘the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.’ The translation in the Authorised or King James Version says ‘the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.’

Very little is told about the childhood of Jesus, between his birth and the beginning of his public ministry, apart from the meeting in the Temple with Simeon and Anna and the 12-year-old being lost in the Temple.

Between the two Temple incidents, he spent the years of his childhood and youth growing, learning and developing. Nothing in Scripture suggests his divine nature disqualified him from the human experiences of learning and development.

The infinite, eternal God took on human flesh. This is the miracle of Christmas, the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Trinity, uncreated, without beginning and without end, at a particular time and place in history came into this world just like one of us, needing to grow, learn develop, for Jesus Christ was truly God and truly human.

As a normal child, he learned to walk and talk, probably learned several languages, including Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and perhaps a little Latin, hung around with the local children, learned the building and carpentry trades from Joseph, and probably went fishing too, went to the synagogue on Friday nights and on Saturdays, studied Scripture, learned how to pray and celebrated high days and holy days.

The stories of Christ as an apprentice in the workshop of Joseph the carpenter are popular and pious, but are not found in any Gospel narrative (see Luke 2: 39-40). But these ‘hidden years’ inspired Pre-Raphaelite artists and stained-glass artists in the 19th century, including John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Nathaniel Westlake.

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1869) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which was founded at his parents’ house in London. He completed his painting ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1849-1850) in 1850. It is a work in oil on canvas, measures 86.4 cm × 139.7 cm and is in the Tate Britain in London.

Millais created controversy when this painting was first exhibited in 1850. But it brought the previously obscure Pre-Raphaelites to public attention and was a major contributor to the debate about Realism in the arts.

By the late 1850s, Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style. His later works were enormously successful, making him one of the wealthiest artists of his day. His ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ depicts the Holy Family in Saint Joseph’s carpentry workshop. The painting was controversial when it was first exhibited, prompting many negative reviews.

The realistic depiction of a carpentry workshop, especially the dirt and detritus on the floor, down to the details of Saint Joseph’s dirty fingernails, stirred criticism. Charles Dickens accused Millais of portraying the Virgin Mary as an alcoholic who looks ‘… so hideous in her ugliness that … she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England.’

Dickens said the young Christ looks like a ‘hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a night-gown who seems to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter.’

Other critics also objected to the portrayal of Christ, one complaining that it was ‘painful’ to see ‘the youthful Saviour’ depicted as ‘a red-headed Jew boy.’ Others still suggested that the characters displayed signs of rickets and other disease associated with slum conditions.

Saint Joseph is making a door, which is laid on his carpentry work-table. Christ has cut his hand on an exposed nail, leading to a sign of the stigmata, prefiguring the crucifixion. As Saint Anne removes the nail with a pair of pincers, his concerned mother, the Virgin Mary, offers her cheek for a kiss while Saint Joseph examines his wounded hand.

The young Saint John the Baptist is bringing in water to wash the wound, and so prefigures his later baptism of Christ. An assistant of Saint Joseph, representing potential future Apostles, is watching all that is going on.

In the background we can see many objects that hep to further point up the theological significance of the subject. A ladder, referring to Jacob’s ladder and the ladder used to take Christ down from the cross, is leaning against the back wall. A dove, representing the Holy Spirit rests on it. Other carpentry implements refer to the Holy Trinity.

The sheep in the fold in the background represent Christ’s future followers, who know Christ as the Good Shepherd.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, with a companion piece by Millais’s colleague, William Holman Hunt, ‘A Converted British Family sheltering a Christian Missionary from the persecution of the Druids.’

John Ruskin supported Millais in letter to the press and in his lecture ‘Pre-Raphaelitsm,’ although he personally disliked the painting. Its use of Symbolic Realism led to a wider movement in which typology was combined with detailed observation.

Because of the controversy, Queen Victoria asked for the painting to be taken to Buckingham Palace so that she could view it in private. We do not know whether she was amused, but Millais said he hoped the painting ‘would not have a bad effect on her mind.’

The critical reception of the painting brought prompt attention to the Pre-Raphaelite movement and stimulated a debate about the relationship between modernity, realism and mediaevalism in the arts.

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was another founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His ‘The Shadow of Death’ is painted in oil on canvas, measures 214.2 cm × 168.2 cm, and is in the Manchester City Art Gallery.

Holman Hunt was born in Cheapside, London, on 2 April 1827, and died in Kensington on 7 September 1910. He concentrated on history and religious painting, and his best-known works include ‘The Light of the World,’ ‘The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple,’ ‘The Shadow of Death,’ and ‘The Scapegoat.’

He worked on ‘The Shadow of Death’ from 1870 to 1873, during his second visit to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. He painted it as he sat on the roof of his house in Jerusalem, and the work was completed it in 1873.

The artist shows Christ as a young man working as a carpenter in Saint Joseph’s workshop in Nazareth. The youthful Christ is stretching his arms after sawing wood. The shadow of his outstretched arms falls on a wooden spar on which carpentry tools hang, creating a shadow of death that prefigures the crucifixion. His mother, the Virgin Mary, looks up at the cross-shaped shadow, having been searching in a box where she keeps the gifts from the Magi.

Hunt’s depiction of Christ as a muscular hard-working craftsman was also probably influenced by Thomas Carlyle, who emphasised the spiritual value of honest labour and who earlier criticised Holman Hunt’s earlier depiction of Christ in ‘The Light of the World’ as ‘papistical’ because it showed Christ in regal clothing.

The portrayal of the Virgin Mary, who has carefully saved the Magi’s gifts, depicts the working class values of thrift, financial responsibility and honesty.

The first painting went on display in 1874, the year after its completion. It went on show in Dublin and Belfast in 1875. It was a popular success, especially among the working class, and was widely reproduced as an engraving. The profits from the prints paid for its donation to the city of Manchester in 1883, and it is now held by Manchester City Art Gallery.

Hunt also painted a smaller version in 1873. It was sold for £1.8 million in 1994, which at the time was the highest price paid for a Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Jesus as an apprentice in Joseph the Carpenter’s workshop … a window by NHJ Westlake in the south wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 30 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘We Believe, We Belong: Nicene Creed’. This theme was introduced yesterday by Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 30 December 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for a Church that embraces diversity in all its forms. Help us recognise the beauty in differing expressions of faith and remain united in Christ without suppressing the unique voices within your Church.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home:
help your Church to live as one family,
united in love and obedience,
and bring us all at last to our home in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God in Trinity,
eternal unity of perfect love:
gather the nations to be one family,
and draw us into your holy life
through the birth of Emmanuel,
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The Shadow of Death’ (1870-1873) by William Holman Hunt

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Tracing James Comerford, whose miniature portrait was painted shortly before his marriage in 1829

The miniature portrait of James Comerford (ca 1829) by François Theodore Rochard, in the Lady Cohen Collection at Kenwood House

Patrick Comerford

I recently came across a miniature portrait of James Comerford, dating from ca 1829, by the French miniaturist François Theodore Rochard and now in the Lady Cohen Collection at Kenwood House in Hampstead.

The miniature is a watercolour on ivory, and shows a young James Comerford with short curling brown hair, wearing a dark blue coat and top coat, checked cravat, with spy glass and fob seals, an ivy draped urn to his and right, a sunset sky.

The reverse of James Comerford’s portrait is inscribed in a later hand with the identification of James Comerford as the sitter, together with the information that he married ‘Ann Birrell’. An associated miniature of Ann Birrell by Rochard is fully signed by the artist and inscribed with his Howland Street address and the date 7 February 1829.

In an age before photography – and long before ‘selfies’ – these portable images served as intimate tokens of love and friendship or as reminders of lost, absent or deceased loved ones.

The miniature of James Comerford was part of the Lady Cohen Collection, featuring 65 miniatures by some of the leading artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was given to English Heritage through the Cultural Gift scheme of Arts Council England’s. Bryony Cohen is the wife of the retired High Court Judge, Sir Jonathan Lionel Cohen.

Louise Cooling, the English Heritage curator at Kenwood, said the collection was of outstanding art historical importance. The miniatures are mostly watercolour on ivory, and the miniatures include a double portrait of Mrs Wadham Wyndham and her sister Miss Slade by Andrew Robertson, a late miniature by Jeremiah Meyer, and a work by the last great Scottish miniaturist Robert Thorburn (1818-1885).

The heyday of the portrait miniature coincides with the time when Kenwood was home to the first three Earls of Mansfield and their families. For example, over eight years William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, commissioned 13 miniature copies of his portrait by Joshua Reynolds. ‘A large number of the miniatures commissioned by people who lived at Kenwood are lost, having likely been given away as gifts,’ Louise Cooling says.

The French miniaturist François Theodore Rochard (1798-1857) moved to London ca 1820, joining his brother who was already living there. Rochard was a popular portrait painter specialising in miniatures and in water colours and won two silver medals from the new Society of British Artists in 1823. He retired after his marriage in 1850 and he died in London on 31 October 1857.

His brother, Simon Jacques Rochard (1788-1872), was a painter of portrait miniatures in France, England and Brussels. He was only 20 when he painted a portrait of the Empress Joséphine for Napoleon and later other portraits of the imperial family. After Napoleon’s return from Elba in 1815, he was drafted into the army but fled to Brussels. There he received commissions to paint miniatures, including at least one of the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

Shortly after this, he moved to London, and there he painted numerous miniatures of leading society figures such as Princess Charlotte (1766-1828).

Kenwood House is a stately home on the north fringes of Hampstead Heath. The house was built in the late 17th century and was remodelled in the 18th century for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, by Robert Adam. The house and part of the grounds were bought by Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, in 1925 and donated to the nation. It is now owned by London County Council and a popular visitor attraction, and holds a significant number of historic paintings and art works, including 63 Old Master paintings, while the gardens have sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Eugène Dodeigne.

James Comerford (1720-1808) and Anne (Langton) Comerford were pained by John Comerford (1720-1808) in 1794 and 1797 (Comerford family collection)

But I was curious to know the identity of this James Comerford whose portrait was painted in 1829 by the fashionable portraitist François Theodore Rochard, along with his future wife who is named at Kenwood in the catalogue of the Lady Cohen Collection as ‘Ann Birrell’.

My attention was drawn to this portrait last week as I was trying to trace an English artist in the 1950s who signed his work BP Comerford, and found myself researching the work and career of the artist Charles William (Bill) Comerford (1905-1961).

I am familiar with the work of the Irish miniaturist John Comerford (1770-1832), and some of his works are also the collection of miniatures in Kenwood House. John Comerford was a regular guest at the Langton House in the Butterslip, Kilkenny, of James Comerford (1720-1808) and Anne (Langton) Comerford, and painted miniature portraits of each of them in 1794 and again in 1797.

He probably also painted their nephew, James Comerford (1775-1825) of Newtownbarry (Bunclody), my great-great-grandfather, and James Comerford’s eldest son, Richard Comerford (1796-1848) of Newtownbarry, my great-grandfather’s eldest brother.

Richard Comerford (1796-1848) of Newtownbarry (left) and his uncle James Comerford (1775-1825, right) may have been painted by John Comerford ( Comerford family collection)

However, although they sat for John Comerford, neither James Comerford of Kilkenny nor James Comerford of Newtownbarry is the subject of the miniature portrait of James Comerford painted by Rochard in 1829 – both were dead by then.

I am now confident, however, that the sitter for Rochard’s portrait in 1829 was the Victorian book collector, antiquarian and notary James Comerford (1807-1881), who was married in 1829. This James Comerford was born at Holborn on 7 November 1807, in Castle Street, now Furnival Street, Holborn, and was baptised in Saint Andrew’s Church, Holborn, in March 1808.

He first practised as a notary public in partnership with TS Girdler as Comerford and Company at 27 Change Alley, Cornhill, London, from December 1827. Later, he practised from premises at 7 Tokenhouse Yard, Lothbury. James Comerford was also a magistrate or Justice of the Peace (JP), secretary to the Society of Public Notaries of London (1833), and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians (FSA, 1840).

He married 19-year-old Sarah Anne Bissett, daughter of Captain James Bissett, in Wilmington, Sussex, on 16 July 1828. So ‘Ann Birrell’ may be a misreading of Sarah Anne Bissett’s name in handwriting, and their portraits may have been commissioned in 1828, rather than 1829, in advance of their wedding.

Family tradition says that in his younger days James was something of a rake, who took fencing lessons from a fencing master, Henry Angelo, and fought a duel with a man named Atwood over his future wife. The adventurous and rakish spirit continued after their wedding, when Sarah and James Comerford took their honeymoon during the Belgian/Dutch civil war.

Sarah Anne Bissett was born in 1809, the daughter of a sea captain who died in the American war in 1812. Her eldest sister, Anna Maria Bissett, married the Revd Robert Philip Blake (1801-1841) curate of Wilmington, Sussex, and Stoke, near Guildford, at the time of Sarah’s wedding. He drowned at Niton, Isle of Wight, while swimming with his son, later the Revd Professor John Frederick Blake (1839-1906), lecturer in Comparative Anatomy, Charing Cross Hospital, London and Professor of Natural Science, University College Nottingham.

Between 1829 and 1851, James Comerford and his family were living at 7 Saint Andrew’s Place, Regent’s Park, London. By 1872, James Comerford was living in Framfield, Sussex.

Sarah and James Comerford were the parents of two sons and a daughter: James William Comerford (1829-1917), Charles Frederick Comerford (born 1831), and Emily Sarah (1842-1909), who married Henry Burchett in 1858 and later married the Revd Hamilton Brand.

James Comerford was a book collector and antiquarian. He built on his father’s earlier book collection, and amassed a library that included a large collection of county histories, local topographies and books of Catholic religious piety. He died on 8 March 1881 in the last cholera epidemic in London, and has many living descendants.

James Comerford’s bookplates have become collectors’ items … they perpetuate the claims of the Comerford family in Ireland to descent from the Comberford family of Staffordshire

After his death, his son, Colonel James William Comerford (1829-1917), sold his library and antiquarian collection at a Sotheby’s auction on 16-20 November 1881. His books occasionally come back on the market, but more often they are valued for his heraldic bookplates with the motto So Ho Ho Dea Ne, than as antique books.

The most notable object of antiquarian interest in James Comerford’s private collection was the ‘Bosworth Crucifix.’ This 15th century bronze processional crucifix, measuring 585 mm x 280 mm, is now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

The Bosworth Crucifix is said to have been dug up on the Field of Bosworth in Leicestershire around the year 1778, and came into the possession of the Comerford family around the year 1810.

I have still to see Rochard’s portrait of James Comerford’s wife Sarah Anne Bissett or ‘Ann Birrell’.

The Bosworth Crucifix … the most notable antiquarian item in James Comerford’s private collection, now in the collection of the Society of Antiquarians