Patrick Comerford
Charles William (‘Bill’) Comerford (1905-1961) was an accomplished pen and ink artist whose sketches of country villages and of pubs and street corners in London were published in magazines in the 1950s and 1960s. He also worked as a bookbinder at the Foreign Office Press and HMSO (His Majesty’s Stationery Office), London.
Charles William (‘Bill’) Comerford often signed his work as C Comerford or CW Comerford, but he was known to his friends and family as Bill Comerford.
He was born in Southwark on 20 February 1905, the third child and second son of Henry Comerford (1875-1946), a London wire weaver who was born in Newcastle upon Tynewhen his parents lived their briefly, and his wife Rebecca Louisa (Hudson) Comerford (1878-1954), who were married in Saint James’s Church, Bermondsey, on Christmas Day, 25 December 1899. Henry was then working as a bus conductor.
Henry and Louisa Comerford were the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters:
1, Henry Thomas Comerford (1900-2001), a freelance press photographer.
2, Jessica Rebecca (‘Jessie’) Comerford (1903-1974).
3, Charles William (‘Bill’) Comerford (1905-1961).
4, Isabella Mary Ann (‘Bella’) Comerford (1908-1920).
5, George James Comerford (1914-1991), of Stoke Newington and Hackney North, who married Mabel C Munton (1920-2001), and were the parents of Dennis George Comerford (1944-2008) of Basildon, Essex.
The family was living at Lewis Court, Lever Street, Finsbury, in 1918 and on Grantbridge Street, Islington, from the 1920s until the late 1930s or early 1940s.
Charles William (‘Bill’) Comerford was born in Southwark on 20 February 1905 and was educated at Central London School, Hanwell.
In his younger days, Bill was a gymnast, and he and his friend Alf Willis put on displays in the parks in London as the Polynor Brothers. He was also a good swimmer and diver. He never have learnt to drive, but was a keen cyclist and was a member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and the Barnet Harriers Touring Club.
Before the outbreak of World War II, he was living at Pendennis Road, Tottenham, in 1939, working as a gold finisher and book binder. He married Henrietta Dorothy Hillier (1904-1983), a library book binder of Finsbury and daughter of Alfred and Henrietta Hillier, in Edmonton Essex, in 1940. After they married, Bill and Henrietta moved to a flat in Ealing.
During World War II, Bill was a PT instructor in the Royal Air Force, based at Wellington, Shropshire. His wife Henrietta and their daughter Jane were evacuated to Fairford, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, during the war.
Bill Comerford’s father, Henry Comerford, died at 105 Whitecross Street, Finsbury, London, on 4 January 1946.
By 1951, Bill and Henrietta Comerford were living at Marlborough Road, Ealing, but they moved in the 1950s to Watlington Road, Benfleet, Essex.
Bill’s mother, Rebecca Louisa Comerford of 12 Victoria Park Road, Torquay, died on 20 February 1954.
As an artist, many of Bill Comerford’s pen and ink sketches of scenes in London, Essex and Sussex were published with commentaries in the 1950s and 1960s in a variety of magazines, including the SO Review and Essex Countryside (now Essex Life and Countryside).
He loved gardening, and roses and sweet peas being his favourites, according to his daughter Janet Hayward.
He died in Southend-on-Sea on 28 June 1961. His widow, Henrietta Dorothy Comerford of Watlington Road, Benfleet, died on 9 August 1983.
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