28 million flights at risk, 28 million Venezuelans, 28 million sq m in Albania, and 28 million blog readers

Waiting for take-off in Muscat … 28 million outbound trips from the Middle East are at risk this year because of the war launched by the ‌US and Israel ⁠on Iran (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to surprise me, and these figures passed the 28 million mark shortly after 7 am this morning (20 March 2026). This is the fifth time this month alone that the half-million figure in readership numbers has been passed, reaching 27.5 million last Monday (16 March 2026), 27 million last week (12 March 2026), 26.5 million the week before (3 March 2026) and 26 million at the beginning of the month (Sunday 1 March 2026), when the hits that day were also the highest daily figure I have ever recorded (318,307).

This year so far has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (14 million) have been within the past eight or nine months, and the total of hits last month (February 2026) was the highest monthly total ever (3,386,504), with this blog passing the half-million mark seven times in all in February.

At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 6.5 million hits or visitors for 2026.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached five times this month alone. Half of the 28 million hits (14 million) have been within the last nine or ten months, since 1 July 2025.

Throughout last year and this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in February alone, three were this month (March) and two were in January 2025:

• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 280,802 (26 February 2026)

• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 228,931 (18 March 2026)
• 195,391 (20 February 2026)
• 190,630 (23 February 2026)
• 190,467 (21 February 2026)

The number of readers has been overpowering this year and last, with the daily averages currently running at over 110,000 hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

The Lloyds horse in Milton Keynes … a Lloyds report shows more than 28 million adults in the UK are turning to artificial intelligence to help manage their money (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

To put this figure of 28 million in context:

Venezuela has a population of about 28 million people, including Delcy Rodriguez, once a Maduro henchwoman, who has been installed by Trump as Venezuela’s acting president.

More than 28 million adults in the UK are now turning to artificial intelligence to help manage their money – making personal finance the nation’s number one use of AI, according to a report commissioned by Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyds Banking Group’s Consumer Digital Index is the UK’s largest study of digital and financial capability.

Air has been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s in 28 million older Americans. Breathing polluted air may do more than harm your lungs – it could also increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study of almost 28 million older Americans published last month.

Google has agreed this week to pay $28 million to settle a class action lawsuit claiming that it favoured white and Asian employees by paying them more and putting them on higher career tracks than other workers.

Nearly 28 million outbound trips from the Middle East are at risk this year as a result of the disruption caused by the war launched by the ‌US and Israel ⁠on Iran, according to research on behalf of Oxford Economics.

Australia is projected to reach a population of 28 million by next year (2027), having passed 27 million in early 2024. The figure represents a significant milestone in Australia’s rapid post-pandemic growth, which has seen an average increase of one million people every two or three years.

Albania, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea (formerly Spanish Guinea), Guinea Bissau and Haiti each has a land area of about 28,000 sq km or 28 million sq metres.

Norway is often described as having a mainland coastline of roughly 2,500 km, but that figure stretches to over 28,000 km (28 million sq metres) when fjords, bays, and 50,000 islands are included. The 28,000 km figure is an example of the coastline paradox, which explains that as the unit of measurement becomes smaller, the measured length of a convoluted coast increases.

And 28 million minutes is equal to 53 years, 2 months, and 25 days, or 466,666.6 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take more than 53 years, from the end of 1972, to reach this latest figure of 28 million .

It is four years since I retired from active parish ministry in March 2022. These days, though, about 100 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 or more people each week.

Today, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 28 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain grateful to the faithful core group of about 100 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.

By the shores of Lake Butrint in south Albania … Albania has a land area of about 28,000 sq km or 28 million sq metres (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A reminder that even in darkness resilience and hope can shine and bring light into the darkest places

The Chanukiah from the Jewish Museum at the Museum of the Home in London yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We had intended to go to the Chanukah lighting ceremony in Bletchley Park last Sunday. But circumstances changed last weekend, events caught up with us, and we never got there along with a friend who was visiting us. Then, as Sunday afternoon unfolded, any intentions, any plans, or any notions of being in Bletchley were forgotten as news broke of the attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, which has become a tragedy for Jewish communities around the world.

Chanukah continues until next Sunday evening. But this year it has become an especially personally poignant and deeply painful Chanukah for many people in England, with the Bondi Beach attack coming so soon after the attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. It is a stark reminder too that antisemitism is a global threat and of how widespread and dangerous hatred has become.

It was an act of violence that highlights the urgent need for all to unite against hatred and to continue collectively all efforts to pursue safety, tolerance, and understanding. But Chanukah symbolises hope, perseverance and endurance, a reminder that even in darkness, resilience and hope can shine the brightest, and for many it is a challenge to bring light into even the darkest times and places.

Having missed the lighting of the Chanukiah in Bletchley Park last Sunday evening, we found ourselves unexpectedly with an opportunity to join a celebration of Chanukah in London yesterday in a collaboration between the Jewish Museum and the Museum of the Home.

After lighting five of the the candles and reciting the blessings we sang the first verse of Ma’oz Tzur (מָעוֹז צוּר‎) a liturgical poem or piyyut in Hebrew sung at Hanukkah after lighting the festival lights:

My Refuge, my Rock of Salvation!
’Tis pleasant to sing your praises.
Let our house of prayer be restored.
And there we will offer you our thanks.
When you will have slaughtered the barking foe.
Then we will celebrate with song and psalm
the altar’s dedication.

It is a hymn that tells Jewish history in a poetic form and celebrates deliverance from four ancient enemies, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman and Antiochus. It is named for its Hebrew incipit, which means ‘Strong Rock (of my Salvation)’, a name or epithet for God. It may have been written in the 13th century, although recent research suggests the 12th century. It was sung only at home originally, but has been sung in the synagogue since at least the 19th century.

The Museum of the Home in Hoxton is in 18th-century former almshouses founded in 1714 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Three of us were visiting the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum, which is housed in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Hoxton. The almshouses was first built in 1714 with a bequest ln a legacy from Sir Robert Geffrye (1613-1704).

A special all-day event in the Museum of the Home yesterday (18 December 2025) was ‘Object Handling with the Jewish Museum’ from 11 am to 4 pm. This was a free, drop-in day, with an invitation to get up close and personal with handling objects from the Jewish Museum’s collection at the recreation in the Museum of the Home of the 1913 tenement flat, where the Delinsky family will be preparing for a Hanukkah feast.

The day included doughnuts from Rinkoff’s Bakery for sale in their shop and dreidels to play outside their 1913 room, and ended with lighting a special Chanukiah in the atrium at 4 pm.

Sir Robert Geffrye had been a merchant, slave trader, Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers’ Company. The almshouses were built to house the widows of ironmongers, and had 14 four-room houses, housing up to 56 pensioners, with a large garden. The Ironmongers' Company decided by 1911 the area had become too dangerous for pensioners and moved to new premises.

The Geffrye Almshouse and its gardens were bought by the London County Council in 1911. The gardens represented 14% of the open space in Shoreditch, a densely populated area, and the Geffrye Museum opened in 1914. The museum was run in the late 20th century by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), before becoming a charitable trust in 1991.

The museum closed in 2018 for 2½ years for an £18 million development project and reopened as the Museum of the Home in 2021. The museum explores home and home life from 1600 to the present day with galleries that ask questions about ‘home’, present diverse lived experiences, and examine the psychological and emotional relationships people have with the idea of ‘home’ alongside a series of period room displays.

The museum hosts exhibitions that exploring the meaning of home to diverse communities. The main museum building is Grade I listed, and several buildings connected with the museum are listed Grade II* and Grade II.

The Tenement Flat recreates a Friday night in 1913 when the Delinsky family prepares to welcome in Shabbos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Tenement Flat in 1913 is a permanent exhibition in the museum that recreates a Friday night when the Delinsky family prepares to welcome in Shabbos. Their flat is in the Rothschild Buildings, among dozens of tenement blocks built in the late 1800s in an effort to clear inner London of notorious slums and raise the standard of living for working-class Londoners.

By the 1980s, these blocks had come symbols of east London’s poverty, and the Rothschild Buildings were among many that were demolished.

In the museum exhibition, the Delinsky family welcomes in Shabbos on Friday nights. Ray’s famous lokshen soup is simmering on the stove as she prepares the chicken to be roasted in the oven. Ray’s daughter Bessie has spent most of the day tirelessly cleaning the flat and has just sent her brother Nathan to Brick Lane for some last-minute needs. Their father Israel has finished a long week of work and has gone to the local synagogue to pray, before returning home to begin dinner with a blessing.

The room was curated with the help of members of Jewish community groups and was funded by the Shoresh Trust. The objects in the room include religious silverware from ca 1900-1910, and The Economical Jewish Cook by May Henry and Edith B Cohen (1897).

Shabbat Mikets or the Shabbat in Chanukah begins this evening (19 December 2025) at 3:38 pm and the time for lighting the Chanukah candles at home is some time between 3:03 pm and 3:38 pm.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Chag Sameach Chanukah, חג חנוכה שמח‎

Lighting the Chanukiah with the Jewish Museum at the Museum of the Home in London last night (Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sir William Robinson from Westmeath is remembered 150 years later in streets and developments in Singapore

Modern Singapore has been strongly influenced by Irish-born governors, developers and architects (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am sorry to have missed the opportunity to be back in Singapore and Kuching during these weeks. I have missed some family gatherings, including a wedding in Kuching last weekend, and a visit last week to the Marina Bay Sands, a landmark in Singapore and one of the great architectural works by Moshe Safdie, who is one of thes greatest living architects today.

Last year, I looked at the influence of Irish figures and Irish developers and architects on the political life and the landscape of both Singapore and Kuching.

Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, lived in Singapore as the Governor of the Straits Settlements in from 1859 to 1867. William Cuppage (1807-1871), who first began to develop Emerald Hill almost 200 years ago, named Erin Lodge, Fern Cottage and Clare Grove after his family’s homes in Ireland.

The architects include including George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844) from Drogheda, who designed the original Saint Andrew’s Cathedral and many public buildings, Denis Lane McSwiney (1800-1867) from Cork who designed the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore and Denis Santry (1879-1960), also from Cork, who designed many public buildings in both Singapore and Kuching.

I aslo came across a member of the Comerford family, Gerald Francis Commerford, who was held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war in Singapore and Borneo during World War II.

Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson (1834-1897) was in Singapore as the Governor of the Straits Settlement for almost three yers from 1877 to 1879

Another key Irish-born figure in Singapore was Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson (1834-1897), a colonial administrator and composer, who wrote several well-known songs. Robinson only spent a short time in Singapore as the Governor of the Straits Settlement, less than three years from 1877 to 1879, and for most of his colonial career he was based in Australia. But he has left his mark in Singapore in street names and property developments.

Despite his name, Robinson was not connected with the well-known business of Robinson and Cleaver on the corner of Donegall Square and Donegall Place in Belfast. Instead, Robinson was descended from distinguished landed families in Ireland, each with a strong presence in the Church of Ireland. His father, Admiral Hercules Robinson (1789-1864), was present with Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and later was the Sheriff of Westmeath in 1842.

Hercules Robinson took his unusual first name from his maternal grandfather, Sir Hercules Langrishe (1729-1811) of Knocktopher Abbey, Co Kilkenny, an MP for Kilkenny in Grattan’s Parliament and a vocal advocate of Catholic Emancipation.

The admiral’s father, the Revd Christopher Robinson, the Rector of Granard, Co Longford, while his mother, Elizabeth Langrishe, was a sister of James Langrishe (1765-1847), Dean of Achonry and Archdeacon of Glendalough, and a first cousin of both Robert Tottenham (1773-1850), Bishop of Clogher, who lived at Woodstock, Co Wicklow, and John Loftus (1770-1845), 2nd Marquess of Ely, who inherited Loftus Hall, Co Wexford, and Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin.

Rosmead, the Robinson family home near Delvin, Co Westmeath, has been abandoned and derelict since 1940 (Photograph: Willie Forde Photography)

William Robinson was born on 14 January 1834 in Rosmead, his mother’s family home near Delvin, Co Westmeath, halfway between Mullingar and Kells. He was the fourth son of Admiral Hercules Robinson and his wife Frances Elizabeth Wood (1794-1873), the only daughter and heir of Henry Wildman Wood (1720-1795). Rosmead was built in the early 1700s by the Wood family and passed to the Robinson family after Hercules Robinson and Frances Elizabeth Wood married in 1822.

William Robinson was educated at home in Co Westmeath, and at the Royal Naval School, a private boarding in New Cross, Surrey. At the end of his school days, the indebted Robinson family were forced to sell the Rosmead estate in Westmeath in the Encumbered Estates Court. George Charles Mostyn (1804-1883), 6th Lord Vaux of Harrowden, bought the estate in 1852.

The Robinson estate included 1,564 acres at Rosmead, an additional 1,630 acres in Co Westmeath, 1,182 in Co Kilkenny, 677 in Co Meath, and 1,460 in Co Mayo. The sale of the contents alone took three days and included three grand pianofortes, a library with 1,162 books and a painting by Van Dyck.

Meanwhile, William Robinson joined the staff of the Colonial Office in 1858 as a private secretary to his brother, Hercules Robinson, who was Lieutenant Governor of St Kitts, and then accompanied him to Hong Kong in 1859.

William was appointed the President (Viceroy or Governor) of Montserrat in the West Indies in 1862. That same year, he married Olivia Edith Deane Townsend, a daughter of Thomas Stewart Townsend (1800-1852), briefly Dean of Lismore and Dean of Waterford (1850), and then Bishop of Meath (1850-1852).

Robinson was posted to Dominica and then was the Governor of the Falkland Islands (1866-1870), which he described as a ‘remote settlement at the fag end of the world’; Prince Edward Island (1870-1873), where he oversaw the island being incorporated into Canada in 1873; the Leeward Islands (1874); and, for his first time, Governor of Western Australia (1875-1877).

Robinson was appointed governor of the Straits Settlements in 1877. The Straits Settlements came under British control as a crown colony in 1867. It originally consisted of the four individual settlements of Singapore, Penang, Malacca and Dinding; Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands were added in 1886, and the island of Labuan, off the coast of Borneo, was incorporated into the colony in 1907. Most of the territories now form part of Malaysia, from which Singapore was expelled in 1965.

Robinson arrived in Singapore in 1877, ten years after the Straits Settlements had become a British crown colony. The governor was also High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States on the peninsula, and for British North Borneo, the Sultanate of Brunei and Sarawak in Borneo, ruled from Kuching by the Brooke dynasty.

At the time of his appointment to Singapore, Robinson was knighted (KCMG). From Singapore, he oversaw British interests in Bangkok in 1878, and received awards from the King of Siam (Thailand).

Sir William Robinson left Singapore for Australia in 1880

After his time in Singapore, Robinson later served as Governor of Western Australia for a second term (1880-1883) and Governor of South Australia (1883-1889), and was promoted in the knighthood to GCMG in 1887. He found his role as Governor of South Australia was primarily symbolic and social, and was probably bored during that time there. But he was passionate about music, playing the violin and the piano and singing, and he relieved his boredom in South Australia in musical events. He wrote many songs and composed a comic opera that was staged at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne.

He turned down an opportunity to become Governor of Hong Kong, saying he did not want to undergo its harsh climate. He was the acting Governor of Victoria in 1889, and rejected an invitation to become Governor of Mauritius. After an interlude in London, he returned for a third term as the Governor of Western Australia (1890-1895). He managed the transition of the colony to self-rule and chose John Forrest as the first Premier of Western Australia.

He retired from his colonial career in March 1895, at age 61. He moved back to England and became the director of many companies. He died on 2 May 1897 in South Kensington, London. He and his wife Olivia were the parents of two daughters and three sons. He left £84,058 in his will – the equivalent of almost £14 million today.

William Robinson often lived in the shadow of his brother, Hercules Robinson (1824-1897), another Irish-born colonial governor whose career included being Governor of Hong Kong, Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Governor of New South Wales, the first Governor of Fiji, Governor of New Zealand, two terms as High Commissioner for Southern Africa, and two terms as Governor of the Cape Colony. When Hercules was made a member of the House of Lords in 1896 he chose the title of Baron Rosmead of Rosmead, Co Westmeath.

But by then the Mostyn family had put the Rosmead estate up for sale again in the Landed Estates Court in 1879. There were proposals for its adaptation ‘for religious use’ in 1933. The designs by the Dublin architect Ralph Henry Byrne (1877-1946) including the creation of an oratory.

But these proposals came to nothing. The porch and the roof were removed in 1940, much of the house was dismantled, and some of the stone work used to rebuild Balrath, Co Meath, in 1942. Since then, the house has lain in ruins.

Sir William Robinson is remembered in the names of streets and developments in Singapore, including Robinson Road, Robinson Square, Robinson Centre and Robinson Point

But Sir William Robinson is remembered in the names of streets and developments in Singapore, including Robinson Road, Robinson Square, Robinson Centre and Robinson Point.

Robinson Road is a major trunk road in the Central Area that stretches from Maxwell Road to Finlayson Green. The land on which Robinson Road stands was created through land reclamation that began in 1879. It was a coastal road until more land reclamation from the early 1900s to 1932 shifted the shoreline further east to make room for building Shenton Way.

Today, Robinson Road is flanked by major skyscrapers and several developments, including Robinson Centre and Robinson Point. For years, the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Chinese daily Sin Chew Jit Poh were on Robinson Road.

Crosby House, a seven-storey office complex, is a landmark at the corner of Robinson Road and McCallum Street. It was once owned by the Standard Chartered Bank and later by Singtel. Buildings along Robinson Road include architecture built in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the curved Telecoms Building – previously known as the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company (1927) and then Cable and Wireless Building, and later the Ogilvy Centre. The building now houses So Sofitel Singapore, a five-star hotel.

In Australia, Robinson Avenue, Robinson Road and Cleaver Street in central Perth were named after Robinson, as well as Port Robinson, a natural harbour in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Of course, there were other colonial governors in Singapore who were born in Ireland or who came from Irish families.

General Sir Andrew Clarke (1824-1902), who was the Governor of the Straits Settlements in 1873-1875, was a son of Colonel Andrew Clarke (1793-1847), another colonial governor, who was born in Lifford, Co Donegal. The younger Andrew Clarke was brought up by his grandfather, Dr Andrew Clarke, and two uncles, James Langton Clarke and William Hislop Clarke at the family home, Belmont, near Lifford. He went to Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, and spent part of his early military career in Fermoy Co Cork.

Belmont was a large country house at Curraghlane in Lifford. The house has since been demolished, and a housing estate named Beechwood is on the grounds of the house.

Peter Benson Maxwell (1817-1893), the chief justice of the Straits Settlements in 1867-1871, was the fourth son of the Revd Peter Benson Maxwell (1780-1867) of Birdstown, Co Donegal, and was educated at Trinity College Dublin. His wife, Frances Dorothea Synge (1813-1896), was a daughter of Francis Synge (1761-1831) of Glanmore Castle, Ashford, Co Wicklow, MP for Swords. Their son, Sir William Edward Maxwell (1846-1897), was Acting Governor of the Straits Settlements in 1893-1894.

So there is much more to explore in these Irish links the next time I am in Singapore.


A walking tour of Robinson Road, Singapore

Seven members of the extended Comerford family remembered on VJ Day, 80 years after war

Gerald Francis Commerford of the Australian Army Medical Corps was a Japanese prisoner of war and is named on Panel 26 on the Labuan Memorial in Borneo

Patrick Comerford

Commemorations are taking across the land marking VJ Day and the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Japan and the end of World War II in Asia and Pacific on 15 August 1945.

It is only a week or since I was involved in commemorations marking the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945.

Being a pacifist has not stopped me from wanting to remember both VE Day (7 May) and VJ Day and to honour the sacrifices so many people made so that we would have democracy, freedom and justice 80 years later.

The wars in Ukraine and Russia, in Gaza, Israel and Palestine, and the meeting at an air force base in Alaska later today of two bellicose presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, should remind us all that there are no victors in war, that there is no glory in war, and when politicians get it wrong the principal victims of war are ordinary, every day civilians, men, women and children.

Ironically, today’s talks between Trump and Putin, which are unlikely to bring any hope of peace in the world, take in Pacific region as we remember the end of World War II in the Pacific.

This afternoon, to mark VJ Day, I am recalling members of the Comerford, Commerford and Cumberford families who died in the Pacific region during World War II and whose names are recorded on memorials and graves by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The 19 members of this extended family I have found to date on Commonwealth War Graves include prisoners of war of the Japanese in Borneo, Burma (Myanmar), Hong Kong and Japan.

Seven Comerfords fought in the Asia and Pacific regions and five were Prisoners of War of the Japanese. They are remembered in the Sat Wan Memorial in Hong Kong, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery and the Rangoon Memorial in Burma (Myanmar), Yokohama War Cemetery in Japan, and the Labuan Memorial on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah in Borneo, Malaysia.

They were the members of the ‘Forgotten Army’, but they should not be forgotten, nor should the threat and dangers of war be forgotten. These seven people I am remembering today on VJ Day are:

Ernest Edward Comerford: Australian; Lieutenant, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 3 Rec. Trg. Bn. Age: 28. Date of death: 18 July 1945. Service number: QX.35506. Family information: Son of John Edward and Rosina Comerford, of Townsville, Queensland. Grave/memorial reference: 2W. D. 8, Sydney War Cemetery.

Gerald Francis Commerford was born on 8 July 1919 in Maclean, Clarence Valley Council, New South Wales. He was a son of Denis and Margaret Sarah Commerford of Lower Lawrence, New South Wales. His family was originally from Ireland, and they were related to Denis Comerford, who gives his name to Comerford Way in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, near Milton Keynes.

Gerald was a private in a field ambulance unit in the Australian Army Medical Corps during World War II. He was one of over 2,000 Allied POWs held in the Sandakan camp in North Borneo. He was transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1,494 POWs that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942.

Gerald Commerford was 25 when he died of starvation while he was a prisoner of the Japanese in Borneo on 9 February 1945. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on Panel 26 on the Labuan Memorial on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah in North Borneo, Malaysia.

James Matthew Comerford, Australian; Corporal, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 2/26 Bn. Age: 26. Date of death: 25 May 1943. Service number: QX17117. Family information: son of Edward Tobias and Ellen Cecelia Comerford, of Paddington, Queensland, Australia. Grave/memorial reference: A1. B. 19, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma (Myanmar).

John Commerford, United Kingdom; Lance Corporal, Middlesex Regiment, 1st Bn. Age: 27. Date of death: between 1 and 2 October 1942. Service number: 6010413. Family information: son of Serjeant TJ Commerford, The Royal Fusiliers, and of Mary Commerford, of Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, England. Grave/memorial reference: Column 14, Sat Wan Memorial, Hong Kong.

Noel Patrick Commerford, South African; Able Seaman, South African Naval Forces, HMS Cornwall. Age: ?. Date of death: 5 April 1942 (off the coast of Ceylon/Sri Lanka). Service number: 66493. Family information: son of Mrs P Commerford, of Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa; brother of Terence Commerford (see below), who died five months later. Grave/memorial reference: Panel 74, Column 1, Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Thomas Michael Comerford, Australian; Private, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 2/20 Bn. Age: 39. Date of death: 26 October 1943. Service number: NX55519. Family information: son of John and Bridget Ann Comerford. Grave/memorial reference: Aust. Sec. A.B.1, Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan.

William Comerford, United Kingdom; Fusilier, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Bn. Age: 22. Date of death: 18 January 1943 (POW). Service number: 6981836. Family information: son of Edward William Comerford and Harriet Comerford, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Grave/memorial reference: Face 11, Rangoon Memorial, Burma (Myanmar).

Behind each of these names and numbers are real-life stories … but more of these stories tomorrow evening.

Gerald Francis Commerford was a Japanese prisoner of war in Changi in Singapore and Sandakan camp in North Borneo

Commerfords Lane in Ulmarra remembers two brothers from Ireland who moved to Australia

Commerfords Lane, a long street in Ulmarra, a picturesque small town in the Clarence Valley in New South Wales (Photograph: Kathryn Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I recently received photographs from Kathryn Comerford of Commerfords Lane, a long street in Ulmarra, a picturesque small town village in the Clarence Valley in New South Wales, Australia. The street is named after two Irish-born brothers, Denis and Thomas Comerford or Commerford, who were pioneers in the town.

Kathryn Comerford, who sent me the images, is a great-granddaughter of one of these brothers, Denis Comerford (1834-1892), who moved to Australia in 1862 with Thomas Comerford (1837-1900).

Although she says ‘the council incorrectly spelt the surname’, these variations in the spelling of the family name are found regularly. As I looked further into the history of these brothers and their branch of the family, it was interesting to be reminded that they were related to Denis Comerford, who gives his name to Comerford Way, the street in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, that features in the banner image of this blog.

Thomas Comerford was also the grandfather of Gerald Francis Commerford (1919-1945), who died in the Japanese prisoner of war camp in Sandakan, Sabah, north Borneo, on 9 February 1945, and who was one of the people I referred to earlier this month when I wrote about Comerford family members who died during World II.

Commerfords Lane, a long street in Ulmarra, a picturesque small town village in the Clarence Valley in New South Wales (Photograph: Kathryn Comerford)

Ulmarra is a small town on the south bank of the Clarence River in the Clarence Valley district in New South Wales. It is 631 km north of Sydney, 17 km from Grafton on the Pacific Highway, and has a population of about 418 people.

Ulmarra stands on the deep channel side of the Clarence River and is almost bypassed by the Pacific Highway. Ulmarra’s name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘Bend in the river’. With its historic buildings and river ferry, it has an antique charm. It sites can be followed on an interesting heritage trail. The buildings on River Street and Coldstream Street are redolent of the town’s past as a 19th century river port, while the Commercial Hotel was a location in the 1987 television mini-series Fields of Fire as a 1929 Queensland pub.

The town had the distinction of being the smallest local government area in New South Wales until 2000, when it was amalgamated with the Nymboida Shire to form Pristine Waters Shire. This was later merged with Copmanhurst, Grafton and Maclean Shires to become the Clarence Valley Council. The Ulmarra Ferry crossing the Clarence River from a point about 1 km north of Ulmarra, to Southgate on the north bank, closed a year ago on 10 June 2024.

Ulmarra with its historic buildings and river ferry on the Clarence River has an antique charm

The brothers Denis Comerford and Thomas Comerford, who moved from Ireland to New South Wales and were pioneer figures in Ulmarra were members of a branch of the family that can be traced back to the area around Ballinakill, Co Laois, and to:

Edward Comerford (1769- ), born in 1769 in Rosenallis, Co Laois. He married Dymphna Delaney (born 1758) in Aghaboe, Co Laois. Edward and Dympna Comerford lived in Ballinakill, Co Laois, and they were the parents of:

1, William Comerford (ca 1805-1870), of whom next.

They may also have been the parents of:

2, Patrick Comerford (1801-1870) of Dundalk, Co Louth. He was born in 1801, baptised in 1802, and was the ancestor of the Comerford family of Dundalk.

The first-named son of Edward and Dympna Comerford was:

William Comerford (ca 1797/1807-1870), was born in Ballinakill, Co Laois, ca 1805. He married Mary Talbot (1805-1887), who was born in 1805 in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. William Comerford died in Co Offaly, on 22 January 1870; Mary died in September 1885 in Templemore, Tipperary, or in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, in 1887.

They were the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters:

1, John Comerford (1829-1905), of whom next.
2, Jane (born 1832), born in Templemore, Co Tipperary, 1832, baptised 9 July 1832. She married John Maher (1824-1889), and lived in Chorlton, Lancashire.
3, Denis Comerford (1834-1892), leather merchant. He was born in Templemore, Co Tipperary, in October 1834, and was baptised 6 October 1837 in Templemore, Co Tipperary. and lived in Ulmarra, New South Wales, Australia. The passengers on the Abyssinian, the ship Denis and his brother Thomas travelled on to Australia in 1862, included John Comerford (23), stonemason, of Bagenalstown (Muine Bheag), Co Carlow. He married Ellen Stapleton (1843-1915) in Sydney in 1869, and died in Ulmarra on 2 October 1892. This Denis Comerford is the great-grandfather of the Kathryn Comerford who has corresponded with me recently. Ellen and Denis Comerford were the parents of six children, five sons and a daughter:

• 1a, William Comerford (1872-1956), born in Maclean, New South Wales, on 18 July.
• 2a, Thomas B Comerford (1873-1946), born in Maclean, on 21 December 1873.
• 3a, Denis Comerford (1875-1944), born in Maclean in 1875.
• 4a, Martin Comerford (1879-1961), born in Maclean in 1879.
• 5a, Edward Comerford (1882-1955), born in Maclean in 1882.
• 6a, Mary Jane (1885-1939), born in Maclean on13 February 1885.

4, Thomas Comerford (1837-1900), born in Templemore, Co Tipperary, on 10 October 1837. He arrived in Australia in 1862 with his brother Denis, registered as a labourer, and lived in Maclean, New South Wales, Australia. He married Bridget Hurley (1844-1890) in Grafton in 1875, and died in Maclean on 4 April 1900. They were the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters, all born in Maclean:

• 1a, William Comerford (1875-1876).
• 2a, Mary (1875-1924).
• 3a, John Commerford (1877-1953), married Mary Ann Moloney (1877-1950) on 8 January 1908, and they were the parents of five sons and a daughter: Thomas Bede Commerford (1908-1984); John Joseph Commerford (1910-1967); William Clarence (Clarrie) Commerford (1914-1986); Daniel Kevin Commerford (1918-1926); and Annie Teresa Commerford (1918-2008).
• 4a, Denis Comerford (1880-1963). He married Margaret Sarah Ryan (1885-1953). Their children included Gerald Francis Commerford (1919-1945), who died in the Japanese prisoner of war camp in Sandakan, Sabah, Borneo, on 9 February 1945.
• 5a, Jane (1882-1949).
• 6a, Annie (1884-1964).
• 7a, Bridget (1887-1942).
• 8a, … Comerford (1890-1890), a son, died at birth.

5, Mary (1841/1845-1914), of Kerang, Victoria, Australia. She married James Troy (1837-1885) in Geelong on 4 June 1870, and they were the parents of eight children. She died in 1914 in Kerang, Victoria.

Gerald Francis Commerford was a Japanese prisoner of war in Changi in Singapore and Sandakan camp in North Borneo

The eldest son of William and Mary Comerford was:

John Comerford (1829-1905). He was born in Templemore, Co Tipperary, on 23 November 1829. He married Anastatia (Anty) Tierney (born 1835) in 1860. He died at the age of 76 in 1905. John and Anty Comerford were the parents of at six children, three sons and three daughters:

1, Michael Comerford (1860-1879), born in Co Kilkenny on 18 July 1860, died in Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, in March 1879.
2, Mary (1867-1919), of Fiddown, Co Kilkenny, who married Thomas Butler (1865-1937).
3, Denis Comerford (born 1869), born in Waterford on 21 January 1869.
4, John Comerford (1871-1946), of whom next.
5, Jane (1873-1932), born Pilltown, Co Kilkenny, on 4 March 1873; died in Birmingham in July 1932.
6, Statia (1876-post 1911).

The third son and fourth child of John and Anty Comerford was:

John Comerford (1871-1946). He was born in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, on 12 May 1871, and was baptised in Piltown. He was living in Gortrush, Fiddown, Co Kilkenny, at the time of the 1901 census, but soon moved to England. Two years later, he married Mary Clifton (1868-1932) in Aston, Birmingham, in April 1903. She was born in Cuckfield, Sussex, in April 1868, the daughter of William Henry Clifton (1836-1912) and Mary (Tourle) Clifton (born 1835).

John Comerford worked as a railway guard in the English Midlands. John and Mary Comerford lived in Birmingham, and the couple later lived in Tupton, Derbyshire, and Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Mary (Clifton) Comerford died in Chesterfield in July 1932. Some sources identify John with John Comerford, a former miner, who he died in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, at the age of 75 in September 1946, but so far I have been unable to verify this.

John and Mary Comerford were the parents of five sons:

1, John Henry Comerford (1904-1980), born in Birmingham 14 June 1904, living in Tupton, Derbyshire, in 1911. He married Ethel Patricia Wragg (1903–1986) in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in January 1927. He died in Stafford in 1981. They were the parents of a son:

• 1a, Michael John Comerford (1928–2009), born in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, 18 September 1928; he died in Stoke on Trent, 23 November 2009.

2, William Patrick Comerford (1906-1985), born in Birmingham 6 May 1906, living in Tupton, Derbyshire, in 1911. He married Margaret Rose Wragg (1906-1967), Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in April 1928. William died in Chesterfield 16 May 1985; Margaret died in Chesterfield January 1967; they were the parents of a daughter and two sons:

• 1a, Patricia M Comerford (1929-2002)
• 2a, Philip George Comerford (1933-1998)
• 3a, Peter J Comerford (1933–2007)

3, Denis Anthony Comerford (1908-1984), born in Hasland, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in 1908, of whom next.
4, Bruno Philip Comerford (1910-1992), born in Tupton, Derbyshire, in 1910. He married Rosalind Ann Armstrong (1910-1998) in Chesterfield in January 1934. They later lived in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England were the parents of a number of children, including a son:
• 1a Terence Comerford (1937-2010), who was born in Bedford. He married Gwyneth Price (1938-2015) in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, in July 1959, and later lived in Milton Keynes. He died in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, at the age of 72 on 13 September 2010. Their children included a daughter Belinda Comerford (1962–2022), born in Newport Pagnell, 20 May 1962, lived in Milton Keynes, married in Ampthill, and died in Milton Keynes on 15 September 2022.

5, Francis James Comerford (1912-2000), born in Claycross, Derbyshire, 26 October 1912. He married (1) Mary Anne Jones (1919-1949), and they were the parents of two children; he married (2) Sylvia Hepburn (1902–1987). He died in Kettering, Northamptonshire, at the age of 87, on 6 March 2000.

Denis Comerford looking down the line at Winslow Station in the 1950s

The third son of John and Mary Comerford was:

Denis Anthony Comerford (1908-1994). He was born in Hasland, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on 1 February 1908. He was living in Tupton, Derbyshire, in 1911. He married Dorothy Clarke (1905-1996) in Saint Vincent’s Catholic Church, Vauxhall Grove, Birmingham North, on 2 August 1931. She was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on 26 April 1905, the daughter of Horace Clarke (1879-1943) and Emma (Bower) Clarke (1883-1961).

Denis Comerford came to Winslow from Derby in 1937. His father was a railway guard and advised Denis that the railways offered security in hungry times.

Denis later recalled: ‘One of my first jobs was checking Claycross tunnel, Stephenson’s masterpiece near Chesterfield. It were dark, damp and smelt of sooty old steam engines. Winslow were a step up. Mr Brudenell was in charge of the station. He was a solid looking man, always immaculate with his white collar winged and starched. It was his rule to be on the platform to meet every train. An’ he had a remarkable head for figures. He looked after neighbouring Swanbourne as well.’

Denis Comerford continued to work at Winslow station for more than three decades after the end of World War II. However, the station declined after World War II, and in 1963 Winslow station was listed for closure in the Beeching report, which called for the closure of all minor stations on the line.

Winslow closed to goods traffic on 22 May 1967 and to passengers on 1 January 1968; the signal box followed one month later. The closure was delayed because replacement bus services were not able to handle the projected extra traffic. Denis Comerford left British Railways on February 1968, when passenger train services from the Oxford/Bletchley and Bedford/Cambridge Lines were withdrawn. He ded in Winslow at the age of 86 on 20 November 1994; Dorothy died in 1996. They were the parents of two children.



Corrected and updatedL 31 May 2025)

David Frost (1939-2025), translator of the Psalms and innovative Orthodox principal in Cambridge

Professor David Frost, in that famous tie, speaking under the portrait of Archbishop John Bramhall in the Old Library in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was saddened to hear the news a few days ago of the death of Professor David Frost, the former Principal of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. He died peacefully on Thursday night, surrounded by his family.

I first got to know David when I was a regular student at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge from 2008, taking part in the annual summer schools in Sidney Sussex College, visiting the IOCS in Wesley House on Jesus Lane, joining in IOCS pilgrimages to Saint John’s Monastery in Tolleshunt Knights, and at conferences and seminars in Wescott House, the Anglican theological college across the street from the IOCS on Jesus Lane and around the corner from Sidney Sussex College.

David Frost was a distinguished academic and a Shakespearean scholar of note, and was also known as a liturgist and as a gifted writer. He was a fellow of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, and taught English literature and religious studies at several universities, including the University of Newcastle in Australia. He also worked in theatre in Australia, where he staged the Chester Mysteries in Newcastle and was involved a symphony orchestra.

His research and publications focussed on literary subjects like Shakespeare, 17th century English drama, liturgical works including a modern translation of the Psalms, and the liturgy of Saint Chrysostom.

He worked with Andrew Macintosh and John Emerton on The Cambridge Liturgical Psalter, first published by William Collins in 1976 as The Psalms: A New Translation for Worship. There were two editions, one a plain text and one pointed for singing to Anglican chant.

This modern English-language version of the Psalms was prepared for public and private worship by a panel of eight Hebrew specialists from various Christian traditions, working over a six-year period in collaboration with David Frost as a literary scholar who was conversant with the long tradition of translations into English of this ancient Biblical text.

It became a Penguin classic, The Psalms in English (1996), was authorised for use in many Churches world-wide and became part of six national prayer books, including the Liturgical Psalter in the An Alternative Service Book (1980). The translation was incorporated in An Australian Prayer Book (1978), in the Alternative Prayer Book of the Church of Ireland (1984), and in An Anglican Prayer Book of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It was also adopted for use by the Uniting Church in Australia and in the Methodist Hymns and Psalms (1983).

An adapted version, The Psalms: The Liturgical Psalter (New Inclusive Language Version), was published by HarperCollins in 1995 and was incorporated into A Prayer Book for Australia (1995).

It remains in use in the Church of England and is seen as representing the best modern understanding of what is on occasions a very difficult Hebrew text, and it is recognised by Jews and Christians alike as an honest and reliable translation.

His translation of the Psalms into English was so groundbreaking that his wife, the late Dr Christine Mangala Frost, once told me: ‘I prefer to think of him as David the Psalmist.’

Professor David Frost (right) with Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Dr Christine Mangala Forst at the summer school of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When he retired, David returned from Australia to Cambridge as Principal of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, at a time of great difficulty for the IOCS. With steadfast resolve and unwavering dedication, he guided the institute through turbulent waters into a period of renewed stability and purpose.

During his decade-long tenure as Principal, he brought to the IOCS – and to the wider Orthodox community in Cambridge – a deep love for the Church and a sincere, unwavering commitment to its mission but also an earnest openness to ecumenical dialogue.

In a recent book, In Blind Evolution?: The Nature of Humanity and the Origin of Life, published by James Clarke & Co, Cambridge, he made a powerful case for the incomprehensible Creator who shares in the world’s beauty, suffering and transformation. He challenged the worldview derived from Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories and perpetuated in Richard Dawkins’s atheistic neo-Darwinism, and aligned himself with the Intelligent Design Movement (IDM) in the creation-evolution debate.

David Frost (centre, back row) at an IOCS seminar in Westcott House, Cambridge, honouring the work of Metropolitan John Zizioulas, in June 2014

His leadership of IOCS was marked by a profound faith in the renewing power of Christ, a resolute optimism, and an infectious joy. He enriched the life of the institute with his gift for storytelling and his warm, often mischievous sense of humour.

Among the programmes he initiated at IOCS, ‘The Way’ is catechesis course that remains one of the most important, and is currently used in the Romanian Church and in an increasing number of Orthodox contexts.

I took part with David in 2013 in a presentational video in which faculty, students and supporters of IOCS explained how we have benefitted from the work of the institute over the years.

Others who spoke on the video included the then President of IOCS, the late Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Dr Sebastian Brock, formerly Reader in Syriac Studies in the University of Oxford, IOCS staff members at the time time, the Revd Dr Alexander Tefft, Dr Christoph Schneider, Dr Razvan Porumb and Father Dragos Herescu, along with Dr Marcus Plested and Dr Christine Mangala Frost, as well as fellow students, the Revd David Patrick Cassidy from Austin, Texas, and Alice Belcher from Brighton.

While I was at IOCS, there were memorable lectures on Love, Chaucer, Shakespeare. He frequently and fluently quoted from Shaespeare, George Herbert, William Blake, the Psalms and the Song of Songs.

In one lecture, he offered the beautiful insight that the great creative artists have insights that go beyond the formulations of philosophers and theologians. On one mid-summer evening, he brought a group of us to watch Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the lawns at Saint John’s, where he had once been a fellow.

I shall cherish memories of his generous hospitality and warm welcome, his deep faith, his scholarship, his encouragement, his inclusivity, his style, charm and wit.

In one light-hearted after-dinner speech in the Old Library in Sidney Sussex College, standing beneath a portrait of Archbishop John Bramhall of Armagh, when he told a humorous story about a number of Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic bishops who were known variously as ‘Your Eminence’, ‘Your Elegance’, ‘Your Excellence’ – and ‘Your Effluence.’

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Some of the real-life stories and war-time tragedies recalled in Comerford families on VE Day

Gerald Francis Commerford of the Australian Army Medical Corps was a Japanese prisoner of war and is named on Panel 26 on Labuan Memorial in Borneo

Patrick Comerford

At 6:30 this evening (8 May 2025) the church bells at Saint Mary and Saint Giles are ringing across Stony Stratford, like church bells and cathedral bells across the land, marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Victory in Europe Day. Later this evening, people are asked to light a candle for peace and place it in their front windows at 9:30.

In anticipation of the commemorations marking VE Day, I recalled yesterday the names of the dead from World War II from the Comerford, Commerford and Cumberford families I can find who are recorded on memorials and graves by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The 19 members of this extended family I have found to date on Commonwealth War Graves are from many parts of Ireland and Britain, including Wexford and Arklow, from Glasgow, Hartlepool, Hastings, London, Manchester, Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and Shrewsbury, and also from Australia, Canada and South Africa.

They include soldiers and officers, with ambulance units in the medical corps, drivers, civilian casualties, soldiers in the D-Day landings, merchant seamen torpedoed in Atlantic convoys, brothers and sisters, and prisoners of war of the Japanese in Borneo, Burma (Myanmar), Hong Kong and Japan.

They are buried or commemorated in the Phaleron War Cemetery near Athens and in the graves at the Normandy beaches, in Borneo, Burma, Japan, Nottinghamshire, London, Sydney, Durban and Montreal.

Five Comerfords who were Prisoners of War of the Japanese are remembered in the Sat Wan Memorial in Hong Kong, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery and the Rangoon Memorial in Burma (Myanmar), Yokohama War Cemetery in Japan, and the Labuan Memorial on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah in Borneo, Malaysia. Four Comerfords are named on the Merchant Seamen’s Memorial on Tower Hill in London and two are named on the Plymouth War Memorial.

Behind each name and number os real-life story among and the war-time tragedies and sufferings of many families.

Lilian Rose Comerford was killed on 30 September 1940 when a German bomb that hit the Plaza Cinema in Hastings

Lilian Rose Comerford was 62 when she was killed on 30 September 1940 when a single German bomber dropped one HE bomb a ndhit the Plaza Cinema on Robertson Street in Hastings. Thirteen other people were killed and 35 injured, 12 seriously, in Hastings thatday.

Lilian was born in Ferozepore, Punjab, in 1878, a daughter of Francis Thomas Comerford (1852-1927) and Charlotte (nee Finch) Comerford (1851-1933). Her father’s family was originally from the East End, and Lilian returned with her parents and siblings from India to England as an infant.

She was brought up in Aston, near Birmingham, and later lived with her family in Hasting. After her parents died in the interwar years, Lilian lived at Rose Cottage, The Ridge, Hastings.

Monday 30 September 1940 saw the last major daylight attack against London during the Battle of Britain with about 300 aircraft trying to bomb the capital. The Luftwaffe also launched raids against other targets away from London, and Hastings, along with other towns, suffered as a result.

Throughout Britain, 175 civilians were killed on 30 September, and additional casualties died from their wounds in the weeks and months that followed. Although the Luftwaffe did have specific targets that day, many bombers dropped their loads at the first sign of approaching RAF fighters. There were also ‘tip and run’ raids carried out at high speed and low level.

Hastings was one of the south coast towns hit by Luftwaffe and Lilian Comerford was one of a group people who were killed at the Plaza Cinema that day. They included Albert Henry Southey, a World War I veteran and a member of the Home Guard, and his wife Frances, Clifford Arthur Glazier, Frederick George Hepple, Winifred Ada Spence and Ronald Horace Dutton. Leo Redver Ryan was killed by a bomb in Chalk Pit Lane, Thomas Moyle was killed on London Road, George James Brooker was killed when a bomb hit the National Westminster Bank, and Henry Walter Cook was killed at his home at 484 Bexhill Road.

Cecil Robert Kenneth Hume died in hospital the next day (1 October) from wounds received when a bomb hit the Plummer and Roddis shop. William George Sadler died in hospital on 3 October from injuries he received when a bomb hit Cambridge Road in the same raid on 30 September.

Gerald Francis Commerford was a Japanese prisoner of war in Changi in Singapore and Sandakan camp in North Borneo

Gerald Francis Commerford was born on 8 July 1919 in Maclean, Clarence Valley Council, New South Wales. He was a son of Denis and Margaret Sarah Commerford of Lower Lawrence, New South Wales. His family was originally from Ireland, and they were related to Denis Comerford, who gives his name to Comerford Way in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, near Milton Keynes.

Gerald was a private in a field ambulance unit in the Australian Army Medical Corps during World War II. He was one of over 2,000 Allied POWs held in the Sandakan camp in North Borneo. He was transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1,494 POWs that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942.

Gerald Commerford was 25 when he died of starvation while he was a prisoner of the Japanese in Borneo on 9 February 1945. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on Panel 26 on the Labuan Memorial on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah in North Borneo, Malaysia.

Flight Lieutenant Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956), an RAF fighter pilot named on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London

Apart from Commonwealth War Graves and memorials, Flight-Lieutenant Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956) is one of the RAF fighter pilots named on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, on the north bank of the Thames, about 200 metres from Westminster Bridge, and almost directly opposite the Millennium Wheel.

Harry Alfred George Comerford was born on 13 August 1905, the eldest son of Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955), a popular music hall and variety comedian and actor whose stage name was Harry Ford, and Rosina Sarah Sipple (1881-1958), a descendant of some of the most interesting Sephardi Jewish families in Europe.

Harry Alfred George Comerford, was born on 15 August 1905 in Wandsworth. He joined the RAF on a short service commission in January 1927, and was posted to 2 Flying Training School Digby in Lincolnshire for flying training. When he qualified, Harry joined 16 Squadron at Old Sarum on 19 December 1927, equipped with Bristol Fighters. Within a year, he was posted to 28 Squadron at Ambala, India, near the border with Punjab, on 20 October 1928, and he served on the North-West Frontier in 1930-1931.

While Harry was in India, he married Georgiana Alicia Betty Davidson (1903-2001) in 1931 in Ambala, Bengal. Some months later, Harry moved to 31 Squadron at Quetta – now in Pakistan – on 18 March 1932 and he became adjutant.

Harry was in Britain on leave at the end of 1932, returned to India, and was then posted back to Britain in November 1933. He joined 40 Squadron at Abingdon on 15 March 1934, and then went on to the Reserve of RAF Officers on 7 October 1934.

The name of Flight Lieutenant HAG Comerford on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At the outbreak of World War II, the RAF recalled Harry on 13 January 1940 and posted him to 7 Flying Training School, Peterborough, as a flying instructor and ‘C’ Flight Commander. After being acquitted at a courtmMartial in 1940, he was posted to 6 EFTS Sywell and from there that he joined 312 Squadron at Speke on 1 October 1940 as ‘B’ Flight Commander.

On Tuesday 15 October 1940, 550 German fighters and bombers attacked London, the Thames Estuary and Kent in five waves. Early that evening, two flights of hurricanes, Red and Yellow sections of No 312 Squadron, took off from Speke at 17:30 for a dusk patrol over the Lancaster area, with instructions to return at 18:25. Harry ran out of fuel and bailed out at 19:00, landing near Dalton-in-Furness with injuries.

His aircraft, serial No V6542 had dived vertically into farmland and was completely destroyed. He did not fly again operationally, and was posted away to the Air Ministry on 13 November 1940. He was awarded the AFC on 30 September 1941 and left the RAF when he resigned his commission on 19 April 1943. He died in Leicester in September 1956.

Harry Comerford’s brother, Leonard Jack Comerford (1914-1993), was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II and was a prisoner of war in Germany. He died in January 1993 in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Lieutenant-Colonel Augustine Ambrose Comerford, DSO, MRCVS (1886-1944), is not named on any of these graves or memorials, but he was decorated for his role in World War II, and died during the war.

He was born in Stratford, Essex, into a family that originally came from Co Wexford. He was educated at Mount Saint Mary’s College, a Jesuit-run public school in Spinkhill, Derbyshire, and the Royal Veterinary College, London (1903-1909). During World War I, he was a lieutenant (1916) in the Army Veterinary Service (later the Royal Army Veterinary Corps), and was promoted captain. He transferred to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps Territorial Army (1922), and was promoted major (1926).

During World War II, he was Officer Commanding, 418th (Bedfordshire) Battery, 105th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment RA (Biggleswade), and a lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer in 52 Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery (January 1939 to June 1940), fought in Western Europe, and was decorated DSO (1940) and was Mentioned in Dispatches (1941) ‘for distinguished services in the field’.

He lived at Dean House, Caxton, Cambridge, and later at Home Farmhouse, Potton, Bedfordshire in 1928. He died on 25 February 1944 in Huntingdonshire at the age of 58.

Dr Richard Eric Woodgate Beaumont Comerford (1914-1980) was the consultant anaesthetist at Charing Cross Hospital for much of his career, and was a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II.

He was born in 1914, and like his father, Dr Beaumont Harry Comerford, he was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset (1928-1933). Later he studied medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in the 1930s, and at Saint George’s Hospital, London. He qualified in 1940, and received the degrees MB and BChir at the University of Cambridge in 1941.

Before the outbreak of World War II, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 27 May 1939. During the war, he was a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as a specialist anaesthetist in India, Burma and French Indo-China.

After World War II, he returned to medicine and to Saint George’s Hospital as a registrar, then became resident medical assistant at Fulham Hospital, and at the inception of the National Health Service (NHS) he was appointed a consultant anaesthetist. He became consultant anaesthetist to the Charing Cross group of hospitals, but continued to run the anaesthetic department at Fulham until the move to the new Charing Cross Hospital in 1974. Dr Comerford died in 1980 at the age of 65.

The Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Two Comerford Lawler brothers and their cousin, Jesuit priests from Bunclody

The Mall House on the Mall, Bunclody, Co Wexford … once the home of the Comerford Lawler family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Two Comerford Lawler brothers from Bunclody, Co Wexford, Father Brendan Comerford Lawler and Father Donald Comerford Lawler, and their first cousin, Father Ray Lawler, were prominent Jesuits priests and teachers, closely identified with the life of Clongowes Wood College and Milltown, and with Jesuit mission work in Hong Kong, Australia and Zambia.

Today (31 July) is the feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. In recent days, I have been writing on this blog about two other Jesuits from the Comerford family: the Revd James Comerford (1885-1963), from Ballinakill, Co Laois, a Jesuit missionary in India and whose mother was from Clonegal, Co Carlow, about 5 km outside Bunclody; and the Revd Richard John Comerford (1911-1970), a Jesuit priest and teacher who spent most of his ministry and teaching career in Sydney, and who was descended from an Irish family that emigrated to New South Wales in the 1830s.

These five Jesuits were contemporaries or near contemporaries and their paths crossed regularly throughout their lives, from Clongowes Wood to Tullabeg, from Rathfarnham Castle and Milltown Park to Hong Kong and Sydney, from Bunclody to Dublin, at ordinations and at family funerals.

Milltown Park, Dublin … Brendan Comerford Lawler was secretary of the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy and Lecturer in Philosophy and Logic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1, The Revd Professor Brendan Comerford Lawler SJ, MSc, LPh, STL (1909-1993):

The Revd Professor Brendan Comerford Lawler SJ, MSc, LPh, STL (1909-1993), was born in Newtownbarry (Bunclody), Co Wexford, on 29 October 1909, the son of Peter Paul Lawler (1862-1914) of Bunclody and his wife Victoria Mary (née Derham) Comerford (1873-1971), formerly of Dublin Street, Skerries.

The Comerford name, inherited by Brendan and his brothers, came from their paternal grandmother. Brendan’s paternal grandparents were Denis Lawler (1831-1892), of Rathvilly, Co Carlow, and Bunclody, Co Wexford, and Anne (Comerford) Lawler (ca 1832/1834-1911), of Bunclody.

Denis and Anne (Comerford) Lawler were married in Bunclody on 17 September 1858 and were the parents of ten children, six sons and four daughters:

1, Michael Lawler (1859-1909), born 10 May 1859, died 3 July 1909.
2, Mary Lawler (1860- ), born 6 August 1860.
3, Peter Paul Lawler (1862-1914).
4, Anne Lawler (1863-1942).
5, (Dr) William Comerford Lawler (1865-1935).
6, Kate Lawler (1867- ).
7, John Lawler (1868-1939).
8, Denis Lawler (1870-1941).
9, Edward Joseph Lawler (1872-1873), born October 1872, died 23 March 1873.
10, Sarah Anne Lawler (1873- ), born 23 November 1873.

Denis Lawler died in Newtownbarry on 9 July 1892; his widow Anne (Comerford) Lawler died in 1911. Their third child and second son:

Peter Paul Lawler (1862-1914) of Bunclody, was born 29 July 1862. He married Victoria Mary Derham (1873-1971) of Dublin Street, Skerries, in Saint Francis Xavier Church, the Jesuit church on Gardiner Street, Dublin, on 3 July 1907. Peter Lawler died 3 May 1914; Victoria Lawler lived until she was 97 and died in Dublin in 1971. They were the parents of:

1, Desmond Joseph Comerford Lawler (1908-1980), born 12 April 1908, the Mall House, Bunclody; he lived at the Chase House, Carrigduff, Bunclody, and died in 1980.
2, (Revd) Brendan Comerford Lawler (1909-1993).
3, (Revd) Donald Joseph Comerford Lawler (1911-1984).

Brendan Comerford Lawler was born in Newtownbarry (Bunclody), Co Wexford, on 29 October 1909. His early education was at Clongowes Wood College, the Jesuit-run boarding school in Co Kildare and he entered the Society of Jesus or Jesuits on 1 September 192 6at Saint Stanislaus College, the Jesuit novitiate at Tullabeg, near Tullamore, Co Offaly, known affectionately as ‘the Bog’.

He was a student at Rathfarnham Castle while he was studying science (biology) at University College Dublin in 1928-1932, receiving his MSc in biology. is contemporaries at Rathfarnham Castle and UCD included the Revd Richard John Comerford (1911-1970), an Australian-born Jesuit priest and teacher who would spend most of his ministry and teaching career in Sydney.

Brendan Comerford Lawler moved on from Rathfarnham to study philosophy in Valkenburg, Holland (1932-1935, LPh) and theology in Innsbruck (1935-1938, STL), and he was ordained in Innsbruck on 17 July 1938. He spent those years close to the drama of the rise of Hitler and the Anschluss of Austria. In those years, Innsbruck was also the centre of ‘kerygmatic theology’ and of the liturgical and catechetical renewal spearheaded by JA Jungmann. Soon after Brendan left Innsbruck, the Jesuit house in Sillgasse was turned into Gestapo headquarters. By then, Brendan was safely back in Ireland pursuing further studies.

He was back at Rathfarnham Castle in 1939-1940, spent a year as Professor of Cosmology and Biology at Tullabeg (1940-1941), and then pursued private studies while living in the Jesuit community at 35 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin (1941-1943).

He returned to Tullabeg in Autumn 1943 as Professor of Cosmology and Biology (1943-1962), and during that time he was also Rector (1953-1959). From 1962 to 1968, he was at Loyola House on Eglinton Road, Dublin, as Socius to the Jesuit Provincial.

He returned to academic life in Milltown Park in 1968 as secretary of the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy (1968-1992), Lecturer in Philosophy and Logic, and Assistant Registrar (1982). I got to know him there, and I was a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics in 1982-1984, when it was still based in Milltown Park.

While Brendan was at Milltown, his widowed mother, Victoria Comerford, who was living nearby at 4 Palmerston Villas, Rathmines, died in Harold’s Cross Hospice on 9 May 1971 aged 97.

His natural humour and spirit of companionship blossomed in Milltown. There he organised what came to be called ‘Saturday Theology’, a successful programme of lectures for extra-mural students. Over a period of 20 years, this introduced countless people to the thinking of Vatican II.

His early interest in the scriptures bore fruit in his book Epistles in Focus, for many years the only scholarly book on scripture by a member of the Irish Jesuit Province. During his final years in Milltown he also published in Milltown Studies, including ‘The Star of Implication’ (Milltown Studies, No 5).

He retired to Cherryfield Lodge, the Jesuit retirement home in Ranelagh, in 1993. With the onset of Parkinson’s, he moved to the Royal Hospital, Dublin. He died in Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, on 16 June 1993 at the age of 83.

Father Don Comerford took his vows as Jesuit novice in Emo Court in 1930 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

2, The Revd Donald Joseph Comerford Lawler (1911-1984):

Brendan Comerford Lawler’s younger brother, the Revd Donald Joseph Comerford Lawler (1911-1984), was also a Jesuit priest.

Donald Joseph Comerford Lawler was born on 2 March 1911 in Newtownbarry, Co Wexford, the son of Peter Paul Comerford (1862-1914) and Victoria Mary (née Derham).

Don’s early schooling was at the Dominican Convent, Wicklow, before going on to Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Tullabeg on 1 September 1928, and he took his vows as a Jesuit novice on 2 September 1930 at Emo Park or Emo Court, the former home of the Earls of Portarlington and the Dawson family, which had been acquired by the Jesuits as a novitiate earlier that year.

Don was a student at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, in 1930-1933, studying physics and chemistry. He received his BSc at University College Dublin in 1933, and then studied philosophy at Tullabeg in 1933-1936.

He moved to Hong Kong in 1936, and was in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, in 1937. After two years studying Cantonese, he taught for two years in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong (1938-1940).

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 prevented Don’s return to Ireland for his theology studies, and he was asked to spend another year in Hong Kong. He was then moved to Australia to study theology in Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, from 1941.

He was ordained on 8 January 1944, in Sydney, Australia, alongside the Revd Richard Comerford, the Australian-born Jesuit who had been a contemporary of Brendan and Don in Rathfarnham Castle and UCD. Their ordination group in 1944 was the first group of Jesuits to be ordained in Sydney.

Don was a chaplain at the end of World War II, and then returned to Ireland in 1945 for further studies. After a year in Rathfarnham Castle (1945-1946), he returned to Hong Kong in 1946, and he took his final vows as a Jesuit on 3 February 1947 in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong.

He was the senior science master in Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, for more than 30 years (1946-1976). The Cantonese form of his name is: 羅明德神父

He was an outstanding and conscientious teacher of physics to the higher forms, and played a role in organising science teaching in the schools in Hong Kong. In Wah Yan, he was also a vigorous sports master.

He suffered his first stroke in 1976. He returned to Wah Yan and took a slight part in community life. He managed to attend his Golden Jubilee dinner for a short period, and concelebrated Mass on extreme invalid terms. After a second stroke, the Columban Sisters cared for him in Ruttonjee Sanatorium.

After another stroke, he was brought to Saint Paul’s Hospital, Causeway Bay. He was brought by hospital plane to Ireland in 1979.

Don stayed first in Saint Vincent’s Hospital and then in Lisheen Nursing Home, Rathcoole, Co Dublin. The care of his elder brother, Father Brendan Lawler, helped to mitigate the hardship of his prolonged illness. He died on 4 December 1984 after a long illness, aged 73.

He was remembered for his ‘crystal clear mind … lithe vigorous body … (and) unquestioning independence.’ It was said he had ‘a sturdy distaste for loose thinking and for conventional expression or manifestation of piety. Eschewing gush, he had an unrivalled grasp of the theological and spiritual principles underlying … Jesuit life.’

Father Ray Lawler was born at River View House, Bunclody, the home of his father, Dr William Comerford Lawler (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

3, The Revd Raymond John Bolger Lawler (1921-2001):

Brendan Comerford Lawler and Donald Comerford Lawler were first cousins of the Revd Raymond John Bolger Lawler (1921-2001), also a Jesuit priest.

Raymond John Bolger Lawler (1921-2001) was born in Newtownbarry, Co Wexford, 28 May 1921. He was a son of Dr William Comerford Lawler, physician and surgeon, of River View, Newtownbarry, and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Bolger).

Dr William Comerford Lawler (1865-1935) was a son of Denis Lawler (1830-1892) and Anne Comerford (1832-1912). He was born on 13 August 1865. He was married three times. He married (1) Elizabeth McCourt (1867-1909) of 115 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, daughter of Patrick McCourt, in Saint Andrew’s Church, Dublin, on 5 September 1906. She died in Dublin on 23 June 1909. He married (2) Mary Elizabeth Cecilia Bolger (1891-1924), daughter of John Bolger, merchant, of Ferns, Co Wexford, in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, on 26 April 1919. Their children included:

1, Denis Albert Bolger Lawler (1920-2017), born 28 February 1920, 5 Mount Street Crescent, Dublin. He was a solicitor in Milford, Co Donegal, married and had children. He later lived in Dartry, Dublin, and died 11 April 2017. His funeral took place in Rathfarnham Church of Ireland Parish Church.
2, (Revd) Raymond John Bolger Lawler (1921-2001).
3, William David Bolger Lawler (1922- ), born 9 November 1922 at River View, Newtownbarry, later lived in Canada.
4, Teresa Lawler Joynt (1924-2010), of Barroge, Castletown,Co Wexford, married and had children. She died 25 January 2010 and is buried in Bunclody.

Mary Elizabeth (Bolger) Lawler died on 23 October 1924, aged 33. William Comerford Lawler married (3) Josephine Mary Bolger (1896-1971), Mary’s sister and a daughter of John Bolger of Ferns, in Monkstown, Dublin, on 23 February 1927. Josephine Comerford died 3 November 1971.

The second son of William Comerford Lawler:

The Revd Raymond John Bolger Lawler was born in Bunclody on 28 May 1921. Later in life, when he was preaching at the funeral Mass of his neighbour and schoolfriend, Dr Tom Murphy, former President of UCD, in 1997, he jokingly described Bunclody, where they were both born, as the ‘back of beyond.’

At the age of four, Ray too was sent to the Dominican Convent, Wicklow, as a boarder. He was 11 when he was sent to Clongowes Wood College, where he figured prominently at cricket and rugby. Little did he realise that he would spend almost half of his life there as teacher, prefect of studies, higher line prefect, and finally as third line Spiritual Father which he was when he died at the age of 80.

Ray entered the Jesuits at Saint Mary’s, Emo, Co Laois, on 7 September 1938. He was a student at Rathfarnham Castle, studying arts at UCD (1940-1943), and receiving a BA honours in Latin and French at UCD. He then studied philosophy in Tullabeg (1943-1946), while his cousin Brendan was Professor of Cosmology and Biology. He spent two years at the Jesuit community in the Crescent, Limerick (1946-1948), a year at Clongowes Wood College (1948-1949), and studied theology in Milltown Park (1949-1953).

He was ordained priest in Milltown Park on the feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, 31 July 1952.

After a further year at Rathfarnham Castle (1953-1954), he returned to Clongowes Wood College (1954-1962), teaching Latin and French and Religion, and he took his final vows as a Jesuit on 2 February 1956. He was Prefect of Studies in Clongowes in 1956-1962.

When an official visitor from Rome to the Irish Jesuit Province made changes in personnel, Ray was moved to Belvedere College, Dublin, for two years (1962-1964). He returned to Clongowes in 1964 again as higher line prefect (1964-1968) and as a teacher (1968-1981).

He was an excellent teacher of French, coached rugby and played cricket regularly for the local club, North Kildare. He was a regular sight on the college golf course and competed frequently in Naas Golf Club.

At 60, Ray had a sabbatical in Toronto, Canada, in 1981-1982. This was followed by two years in Zambia teaching French and Scripture to Jesuit novices in Lusaka (1982-1984). As he left for Zambia, the school secretary said , ‘If there were a university degree for gentleness, I think that Father Lawler would have a PhD’. His character was summed up in the phrase ‘a lovable and loving person.’

When he returned to Ireland, he spent a year in Tullabeg as Director of the Spiritual Exercises (1984-1985), followed by 10 years at Gardiner Street Church as parish chaplain (1985-1995). His uncle Peter Paul Lawler had been married in the same church in 1907.

When Ray was 74, he returned to Clongowes Wood as the third line spiritual father (1995-2001), and he also assisted in chaplaincy in Cherryfield, the Jesuit retirement home near Milltown Park.

He enjoyed good health to the end. He preached on Mandy Thursday to the past pupils who were on retreat in Clongowes and played golf on Good Friday afternoon. He died in his room in Clongowes on Holy Saturday following a massive heart attack, on 14 April 2001 at the age of 80.

Although his funeral took place during school holidays, the college chapel was full for his funeral Mass. Members of his family and students of the school carried his coffin along the Third Line gallery. Present and past pupils formed a guard of honour in a moving tribute to a priest who had come to mean so much to so many young people over so many years.

Psalm 138 (139) was his favourite and he often quoted the lines: ‘It was you who created my being … I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation.’ The Psalm ends with the words: ‘See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.’

Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare … part of the lives of Brendan, Don and Ray Lawler

This posting is now available on the Comerford Genealogy site as part of the series of Comerford Profiles HERE

For a posting on Comerford missionaries, visit HERE