George McNabb

Aug 8 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HE DIED peacefully with his family around him, far away from the noisy, fog-cast docklands, where he grew up in a Liverpool community hardened by circumstances but never slow to embrace strangers.

And the man remembered his own father, John McNabb, a popular figure whose grand baritone voice had, on happy nights by the hearth, entertained neighbours in Bevington Street, off Scotland Road, Vauxhall.

John was in the local Eldonian Minstrels – real dandies in cummerbunds and bow-ties, their shoes polished until the toe-caps shone under the stage lights.

Some blacked their faces with burnt cork in the American style. They wouldn’t have done that in these politically correct days, but those were different times with different values. Besides that, they all loved the Stephen Foster songs, like Nelly Bly, Beautiful Dreamer and the Camptown Races.

John, whose family had come from County Mayo, was orphaned when he was young and, with his two sisters, he was brought up by Mr and Mrs Coleman, at 8 Marybone. John ran away to sea at 13 and worked as a stoker for the White Star line for 20 years, before moving to a biscuit factory.

He had married Helen Bracken in 1911 at Holy Cross Church, Vauxhall. George was the first of their nine children, brought up in Bevington Street.

He attended Our Lady’s School, Eldon Street, and then St Edward’s College, Liverpool. In the depression, George found work hard to find and he ended up in the biscuit factory with his father.

In 1934, with money scarce, George married Mary Hanlon in the grandeur of St Anthony’s Church, Scotland Road. They were together for 66 years, until her death.

With war looming, George trained with the Air Ministry and was sent to St Athan airfield, South Wales, working on engine maintenance.

After the war, he worked as an estimator at various locations and settled in Barry. He had seven children, 11 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He also has two sisters and a brother in Formby.

Throughout his life in Wales, George retained his love of Liverpool FC, as well as cricket and horse-racing. The old streets of home were always close to him and he loved hearing the Kop sing You’ll Never Walk Alone.

On Monday, he will be buried alongside Mary in Barry Cemetery.

George McNabb, Liverpudlian; born 1912, died August 2, 2008.