Individual Details
James HUSSEY
(27 Sep 1865 - 3 Apr 1936)
James's baptismal sponsors were John Barry and Ellena Lynch.
James went to school at St. Edmund's College near Ware in Hertfordshire and went on to become a solicitor. At the time of the 1901 census, he and his wife, Jane, were living at 38 Westcroft Square in Hammersmith, and at the time of the 1911 census and the time of James's mother's death in 1913 they were at Olympia Mansions in Hammersmith. They later moved to 35 Dewhurst Road, Brook Green, Hammersmith where they lived for many years. I am told, however, that their marriage was not a happy one.
James seems to have retired from legal practice by 1919 because the marriage record of his son Michael from that year gives James's occupation as 'Clerk, Board of Trade'. James was a talented organist and played regularly at his local church in Brook Green. He died of a malignant prostate, the same disease to which his father had succumbed. On his death record, James's occupation is given as church organist.
There follows a poem written about James, written many years after his death, by his granddaughter Maureen Gordon (née Hussey):
ODYSSEY
Grandfather,
Looking backwards through the years,
I see you sitting on my childhood bed -
Wizard of wonder,
Ancient innocence -
Weaving me webs of magic and myth.
Heroes and gods,
Enchanters, unicorns
Peopled the lucid air
Through which we voyaged
On translucent seas
To coral islands - Cathay - Camelot.
Later, on tired old legs,
You trudged the streets,
Trading your meagre pence on market stalls
For unconsidered treasure,
Argosies
Of well-thumbed books
Whose illustrations burned
Scarlet and gold through tissue coverings
Thin as the mists of time.
You were not reckoned a successful man,
Small value put on you or on your wares;
Though I recall you aureoled with love,
Your photos show you threadbare,
Down-at-heel.
You left no legacy the world calls wealth,
Only to me
The little golden key
To jewelled caverns,
Labrynthine ways
Into infinities of cosmic space.
You were my Homer and my Gutenberg.
Once you saw Venice,
And the spell it cast over your life
Suffused my youth with light.
When your great-grandson,
Your true avatar,
Caught in the same enchantment,
Took me there and I first recognised
The beauty floating on the mirroring water
That proved the truth of your mythologies,
You smiled at me again out of his eyes.
________________
From 'The Tug of the Undertow' © 1995, Maureen Gordon
James went to school at St. Edmund's College near Ware in Hertfordshire and went on to become a solicitor. At the time of the 1901 census, he and his wife, Jane, were living at 38 Westcroft Square in Hammersmith, and at the time of the 1911 census and the time of James's mother's death in 1913 they were at Olympia Mansions in Hammersmith. They later moved to 35 Dewhurst Road, Brook Green, Hammersmith where they lived for many years. I am told, however, that their marriage was not a happy one.
James seems to have retired from legal practice by 1919 because the marriage record of his son Michael from that year gives James's occupation as 'Clerk, Board of Trade'. James was a talented organist and played regularly at his local church in Brook Green. He died of a malignant prostate, the same disease to which his father had succumbed. On his death record, James's occupation is given as church organist.
There follows a poem written about James, written many years after his death, by his granddaughter Maureen Gordon (née Hussey):
ODYSSEY
Grandfather,
Looking backwards through the years,
I see you sitting on my childhood bed -
Wizard of wonder,
Ancient innocence -
Weaving me webs of magic and myth.
Heroes and gods,
Enchanters, unicorns
Peopled the lucid air
Through which we voyaged
On translucent seas
To coral islands - Cathay - Camelot.
Later, on tired old legs,
You trudged the streets,
Trading your meagre pence on market stalls
For unconsidered treasure,
Argosies
Of well-thumbed books
Whose illustrations burned
Scarlet and gold through tissue coverings
Thin as the mists of time.
You were not reckoned a successful man,
Small value put on you or on your wares;
Though I recall you aureoled with love,
Your photos show you threadbare,
Down-at-heel.
You left no legacy the world calls wealth,
Only to me
The little golden key
To jewelled caverns,
Labrynthine ways
Into infinities of cosmic space.
You were my Homer and my Gutenberg.
Once you saw Venice,
And the spell it cast over your life
Suffused my youth with light.
When your great-grandson,
Your true avatar,
Caught in the same enchantment,
Took me there and I first recognised
The beauty floating on the mirroring water
That proved the truth of your mythologies,
You smiled at me again out of his eyes.
________________
From 'The Tug of the Undertow' © 1995, Maureen Gordon
Events
| Birth | 27 Sep 1865 | 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London | |||
| Christen | 29 Oct 1865 | Our Lady of Victories, High St., Kensington | |||
| Marriage | 13 Aug 1891 | Our Lady of Victories Church (Pro-Cathedral), High St., Kensington - Jane Frances BUTLER | |||
| Death | 3 Apr 1936 | West London Hospital, Hammersmith, London | |||
| Burial | 6 Apr 1936 | St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London (grave no. 2845 XP) |
Families
| Spouse | Jane Frances BUTLER (1867 - 1946) |
| Child | Michael Robert HUSSEY (1892 - 1980) |
| Child | Philip James HUSSEY (1894 - 1916) |
| Child | Stephen Joseph HUSSEY (1895 - 1978) |
| Child | Anne (Nan, Annie) Mary HUSSEY (1899 - 1990) |
| Child | Martin James HUSSEY (1901 - 1971) |
| Child | Winifred (Winnie) M. HUSSEY (1902 - 1993) |
| Child | Augustine (Austin) Thomas HUSSEY (1907 - 1992) |
| Father | Thomas HUSSEY (1834 - 1919) |
| Mother | Agnes DEVINE (1834 - 1913) |
| Sibling | Agnes Ellen HUSSEY (1858 - 1860) |
| Sibling | William HUSSEY (1860 - 1866) |
| Sibling | Agnes HUSSEY (1861 - 1935) |
| Sibling | James/Thomas Joseph HUSSEY (1863 - 1863) |
| Sibling | Thomas Aloysius HUSSEY (1864 - 1916) |
| Sibling | William (Will) HUSSEY (1866 - 1939) |
| Sibling | John (Jack) Thomas HUSSEY (1867 - 1922) |
| Sibling | Alfred HUSSEY (1869 - 1899) |
| Sibling | Elizabeth Josephine Mary HUSSEY (1871 - 1941) |
| Sibling | Henry (Harry) Aloysius HUSSEY (1872 - 1916) |
| Sibling | Edmund HUSSEY (1874 - 1955) |
| Sibling | Catherine (Kate) HUSSEY (1875 - 1944) |