5,199 burials at South Shields St. Stephen’s, covering 1901-1947. This includes many burials from the Ingham Infirmary, Wellesley Hospital, Dene’s Hospital, the South Shields Union Workhouse, and the Harton Workhouse. Most burials give street addresses in South Shields or Harton, plus some North Shields and Newcastle-area addresses.
Sample burials:
- 10 Feb 1901 Thomas Young Brown, of Ingham Infirmary, age: 56
- 21 Apr 1902 Jane Scott, of 34 Charlotte Street, age: 84, buried without the rites of the church of England
- 20 May 1916 John Abernethy, of 48 George Scott Street, age: 88
- 06 Jun 1922 James Stephenson, of 9 Edith Street, age: 25, drowned at Sea 31st March 1922
- 25 Aug 1934 George Park Christie, of 169 Harton Lane, age: 74
[Note: 169 Harton Lane was the address of the Harton Workhouse.] - 18 May 1946 John William Sullivan, of 11 Thames Lane, age: 71, Roman Catholic
- 15 Apr 1941 Clara Taws Snr, of 5 Harper Street, age: 40, Enemy Action
[Note: Killed by a German bomb that detroyed the Taws home.]
The last burial above, Clara Taws, was a mother who was killed along with her 18-year-old daughter Clara and 2-year-old son John in a direct hit of a German bomb on their house in South Shields. Click the BBC link below to read the very sad memoir written by her son Bill Taws, who had been evacuated to a farm outside the city and thus escaped the bombing:
This poor family had already lost a daughter, Vera, to diphtheria in 1936, and a son Stan (who was in the Air Force) was killed (along with more than 4,000 others) on the R.M.S. Lancastria when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe in June 1940. I’m sure their story is not uncommon, but it touched me that one family should suffer so much loss.