ARMSTRONG, John Hall
Born 4 October 1887, died 16 November 1918; buried 17 November 1918; age 31
John Hall ARMSTRONG was a Scot, born in Laird Street, Greenock on 4 October 1887. His mother, Janet (or if the informant for his death record is right, Jeanette) HALL had married David Armstrong on the very last day of 1880 in Sorn, a small village in East Ayrshire on the River Ayr. Both fathers of the couple mined coal for a living. A first son to the Armstrongs was born in 1881 in Sorn and named William. Five years later, when John was born, his father was working as a Greenock railway porter. Shortly after this birth, the family returned to Sorn where David Armstrong took up selling insurance on commission. In March 1888 Janet became very ill with pernicious anaemia and died 3 months later, aged 28, in June 1888. John was only nine months old.
With two young sons to raise, David Armstrong remarried in March 1890, this time in Irvine about 32 km from Sorn. His new bride, Isabella McLEAN, was the child of a gamekeeper, and had worked as a laundrymaid. John’s father was 30 and his new bride 27. They set up house at Bank Street, in Irvine, a town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, and lost no time in extending their family. Between 1891 and 1898, two daughters and three sons became John’s younger sisters and brothers: Marion Isabella McLean (May), David, Alexander, Hector and Jessie Armstrong. During this time the family moved to Saltcoats.
Though several of John’s uncles and aunts left Scotland for the United States of America, David and Isabella decided to try their luck in New Zealand. Without William (by then 27), they travelled on the Turakina in August 1908, leaving from London. Once in New Zealand, the family settled in Wellington’s Aro Street where John’s father continued to work in the insurance industry and the younger two children, Hector and Jessie, attended Te Aro School. May was the first to leave home when she married Alexander Walter PARTON (plumber, land developer, and later, Wellington city councillor) in 1911.
John Hall Armstrong entered the workforce as a storeman and then took up a career as a bridge builder for the New Zealand Railways. His brothers Alexander and Hector found work driving for the Karori Milk Supply Co. and their other brother David entered the workforce as a storeman and then also took up a career with the New Zealand Railways. Hector signed up for active service in late 1915, and served on the Western Front. He was hospitalised with influenza in London in October 1918 but survived to return to New Zealand in early 1919.
When John contracted influenza in November 1918 he was living at home with his parents at 13 Park Street, Thorndon. He was taken to the temporary hospital in Sydney Street, and he died there at 10.00am on the 16th of November 1918. He was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery the next day.
John’s brother-in-law, Alexander Parton (married to May) suffered a further loss when his mother Rebekah died at midday the same day, at her home at 32 Pirie Street, Mount Victoria, aged 68. She had been ill for some time but the cause of death was influenza. She was buried in the Public section at Karori Cemetery on Monday 18th November.
John had no Will so the Public Trustee tidied his financial affairs and paid John’s funeral and burial costs of £11-2-6 on 18 February 1919.
John’s brother Alexander and his sister-in-law, (May) Joyce Armstrong inserted a memorial notice in the Evening Post a year after John’s death, mistakenly noting his death date as 15 November 1918.
John’s father, David Armstrong, continued living with his wife Bella at 13 Park Street, and was employed by the Provident Life Assurance Society. One evening in the middle of June 1919, while Bella and a daughter, perhaps Jessie, were out at the pictures, David decoupled the hose from the gas cooker in the scullery and ended his life after blocking the gap under the door. In the subsequent coronial investigation, Bella reported that she knew of no reason for David Armstrong to do this. He was buried in the Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery.
In the circumstances of the day, the family might have been worried that news of this event could damage the marriage prospects of its youngest member, Jessie, and it was this that lay behind the widely-reported efforts of her Parton brother-in-law to remove the court reporters’ notes at the inquest into the death of David Armstrong. Nevertheless, three years later Jessie married George Alfred HANNAH in 1922 (a descendant of the well-known Robert Hannah, the successful Irish migrant whose large enterprise manufactured and sold boots and shoes). The 1928 electoral roll shows Jessie and George living at 198 Dewsbury Terrace in Oriental Bay and also providing a home there for the widowed Bella. When George died in 1931, Jessie remarried Ian MacGREGOR shortly before her own death in 1933. Jessie was the mother of actor and theatre supporter Edith Campion.
Bella spent her last years in Levin where she died in 1944 having outlived not only her husband but four of the children who had accompanied her from Scotland so many years before.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot 56 E
Born 4 October 1887, died 16 November 1918; buried 17 November 1918; age 31
John Hall ARMSTRONG was a Scot, born in Laird Street, Greenock on 4 October 1887. His mother, Janet (or if the informant for his death record is right, Jeanette) HALL had married David Armstrong on the very last day of 1880 in Sorn, a small village in East Ayrshire on the River Ayr. Both fathers of the couple mined coal for a living. A first son to the Armstrongs was born in 1881 in Sorn and named William. Five years later, when John was born, his father was working as a Greenock railway porter. Shortly after this birth, the family returned to Sorn where David Armstrong took up selling insurance on commission. In March 1888 Janet became very ill with pernicious anaemia and died 3 months later, aged 28, in June 1888. John was only nine months old.
With two young sons to raise, David Armstrong remarried in March 1890, this time in Irvine about 32 km from Sorn. His new bride, Isabella McLEAN, was the child of a gamekeeper, and had worked as a laundrymaid. John’s father was 30 and his new bride 27. They set up house at Bank Street, in Irvine, a town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, and lost no time in extending their family. Between 1891 and 1898, two daughters and three sons became John’s younger sisters and brothers: Marion Isabella McLean (May), David, Alexander, Hector and Jessie Armstrong. During this time the family moved to Saltcoats.
Though several of John’s uncles and aunts left Scotland for the United States of America, David and Isabella decided to try their luck in New Zealand. Without William (by then 27), they travelled on the Turakina in August 1908, leaving from London. Once in New Zealand, the family settled in Wellington’s Aro Street where John’s father continued to work in the insurance industry and the younger two children, Hector and Jessie, attended Te Aro School. May was the first to leave home when she married Alexander Walter PARTON (plumber, land developer, and later, Wellington city councillor) in 1911.
John Hall Armstrong entered the workforce as a storeman and then took up a career as a bridge builder for the New Zealand Railways. His brothers Alexander and Hector found work driving for the Karori Milk Supply Co. and their other brother David entered the workforce as a storeman and then also took up a career with the New Zealand Railways. Hector signed up for active service in late 1915, and served on the Western Front. He was hospitalised with influenza in London in October 1918 but survived to return to New Zealand in early 1919.
When John contracted influenza in November 1918 he was living at home with his parents at 13 Park Street, Thorndon. He was taken to the temporary hospital in Sydney Street, and he died there at 10.00am on the 16th of November 1918. He was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery the next day.
John’s brother-in-law, Alexander Parton (married to May) suffered a further loss when his mother Rebekah died at midday the same day, at her home at 32 Pirie Street, Mount Victoria, aged 68. She had been ill for some time but the cause of death was influenza. She was buried in the Public section at Karori Cemetery on Monday 18th November.
John had no Will so the Public Trustee tidied his financial affairs and paid John’s funeral and burial costs of £11-2-6 on 18 February 1919.
John’s brother Alexander and his sister-in-law, (May) Joyce Armstrong inserted a memorial notice in the Evening Post a year after John’s death, mistakenly noting his death date as 15 November 1918.
John’s father, David Armstrong, continued living with his wife Bella at 13 Park Street, and was employed by the Provident Life Assurance Society. One evening in the middle of June 1919, while Bella and a daughter, perhaps Jessie, were out at the pictures, David decoupled the hose from the gas cooker in the scullery and ended his life after blocking the gap under the door. In the subsequent coronial investigation, Bella reported that she knew of no reason for David Armstrong to do this. He was buried in the Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery.
In the circumstances of the day, the family might have been worried that news of this event could damage the marriage prospects of its youngest member, Jessie, and it was this that lay behind the widely-reported efforts of her Parton brother-in-law to remove the court reporters’ notes at the inquest into the death of David Armstrong. Nevertheless, three years later Jessie married George Alfred HANNAH in 1922 (a descendant of the well-known Robert Hannah, the successful Irish migrant whose large enterprise manufactured and sold boots and shoes). The 1928 electoral roll shows Jessie and George living at 198 Dewsbury Terrace in Oriental Bay and also providing a home there for the widowed Bella. When George died in 1931, Jessie remarried Ian MacGREGOR shortly before her own death in 1933. Jessie was the mother of actor and theatre supporter Edith Campion.
Bella spent her last years in Levin where she died in 1944 having outlived not only her husband but four of the children who had accompanied her from Scotland so many years before.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot 56 E