The Bessborough plot at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Ballyphehane, Cork is something I’ve felt compelled to return to. It’s a grave that is worn down, with very little adorning it and some weathered decorative stones from decades ago, mithered looking stone surrounds for the grave. As far as the eye can see, there’s nothing spectacular or anything about it that makes it stand out. The only thing that could be noted is the shield style plaque dedicated to one mother, Julia O’Donoghue who died in 1984. She spent over 60 years of her life there. The other is a small black metal cross that says ‘Doris Walsh’, inscribed incorrectly to the memory of Ann Walsh, a mother who died there in 1985, like Julia - spending over 60 years of her life there.
By all appearances, it’s just a simple, ordinary grave. Almost, as if by design.
But it became clear that there was much more to this. In fact, there are 17 people buried in this plot. 4 children and 13 women. However, the Commission of Investigation made one oversight. They wrote in the statistical analysis for Bessborough stating that there were only 12 maternal deaths for Bessborough in this plot. If they are defining the mothers in this case to be deaths of women who gave birth in Bessborough, but later died, they would be correct.
“The Commission found burial records for 12 women in St Joseph’s Cemetery, Cork.” — Chapter 18, Statistical Analysis, Bessborough, Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes (2021)
But there is an outlier to this. While they may have been correct in that sense, for those who do not know the story of the 13th woman in the plot, in my opinion, it’s a slap in the face to her memory. The thirteenth woman in this case — would be Mabel Jessie Huckvale. She died in Bessborough House on January 21st, 1953 at the age of 82 ½ years from old age & chronic bronchitis.
I had consulted the burial records for St. Joseph’s, where Mabel and 16 others are buried in this plot. In the records, it gave me a place of birth for Mabel: England.
Checking the England GRO and getting a copy of her birth record, revealed that Mabel was born on May 27th, 1870 in Warwick Gardens, Middlesex - the eldest child of six born to James Augustus Huckvale and Jessie Louisa Murray. James had worked as a merchant, his wife Jessie looking after their four children, the couple losing their youngest two children, Raymond Murray Huckvale (1880 - 1880) and Victor Murray Huckvale (1885 - 1887) in infancy. She had largely remained with the family throughout her life during which, she would take on the role of a house maid and domestic servant.
Her parents would separate sometime after 1891 with her father, James remarrying in 1894 to Madeline Marguerita Kershaw and having Mabel’s half sister Winifred Huckvale the following year.
But, sadly one thing I had noticed when looking at other trees who featured her is that no one had discovered when or where Mabel had died, with the trees having a rough date of birth and no death date. But most crucially, speaking to Jessica Jean, one of Project Infant’s volunteers showed all the trees left out two very important things: her children. Jessica found that Mabel, contrary to the Commission’s findings was indeed a mother - twice. On September 26th, 1899 - Mabel gave birth to her first child, a son who she would name Edward James Huckvale. He was born in a workhouse in Southwark, London. He would later be baptised in July 1900 in St. Augustine’s Church in Croydon, Surrey.
Unfortunately, Edward would pass away at the age of 2 1/2 years. His burial has not been located. A few years would pass before Mabel fell pregnant, giving birth again to another boy named Frederick James in 1904 in the district of Pancras, but unfortunately, he would die a year later in 1905 in the district of Islington. His burial is known. I was able to find that Frederick is buried in the very expansive Islington & St. Pancras Cemetery in East Finchley (in London). Unfortunately, his burial record does not give anything about where in the cemetery that he is located other than that he was buried with no ceremony in the cemetery on May 25th, 1905. As I write this, I have inquired with the cemetery itself but I am awaiting a response from them, to see if they can help to identify where (or the general vicinity of the area where) Frederick is laid to rest. I feel it’s the least that can be done for him, especially as it can be argued that a very similar situation would play out with his own mother’s death almost 48 years after his own in terms of remembrance and marking the resting place.
Up until recently, the last census that I could trace Mabel on was the 1921 Census of England and Wales, with a large question mark as to what happened to her afterwards. With the release of the 1926 Census, that gap got a bit smaller. On census night back on April 18th of this year - my first search was for Bessborough House, to be able to look for mother and baby institutions like it as it was the first census that will have recorded a number of mother and baby institutions on them. Staring back at me was the name Mabel Huckvale.
So, I now know that sometime between June 1921 and April 1926, Mabel would travel over (for a reason I do not yet know) to Ireland leaving her life in England behind to go to work in Bessborough House until her death in 1953. Her role on the 1926 census was described as being an ‘attendant’, so in this situation, it would be someone who worked within the institution who was placed in charge of the mothers. But something that Mabel was in charge of for a period of time at least was that Mabel Huckvale was also the informant on the death records of six Bessborough children from March to October 1927.
Then, she continued to work as an attendant, at some stage she had been a music teacher (and her burial record records her as a seamstress) and would be buried in the plot two days later.
There are two things I would like to see. One of them is I would love to see a photo of Mabel, to see the face behind the life (however, I don’t know if any photos of her even exist) and the other thing I’d like to see is to ensure there is a proper headstone marking each of the 17 people there, in a much better and more respectful way than they had been. Truthfully, I wish I could say that the grave was being better cared for. The photo I put at the beginning was the plot in July 2025, it’s only gotten more neglected this year [this photo was in May 2026].
Below is the full list of who is buried in this plot. But, for now — I need to continue researching the lives of those buried in that plot and hope that at some point down the line, I may be able to do what I did for Mabel for the other 16. I say that because as more time goes by, the lesser chance there is a person in living memory who can pass on the story. From researching Mabel’s family tree, the closest living relations are some grandnephews and grandnieces who are in their 80s and majority of the surviving ones are great grandnephews and great grandnieces. And, that’s presuming that it was ever mentioned in conversation to them, because as we know, the stigma upheld against single mothers was oppressive with the topic being easily kept at an arm’s length. Telling the stories of those affected, will eventually help reduce that.
This is only one of them.
In Memory Of
Bridget McCarthy - November 22nd 1927 - 23 years
Michael Thompson - December 19th 1927 - 2 months
Joseph Grace - May 28th 1928 - 1 month
John Grace - June 22nd 1928 - 6 weeks
John Swanton - June 26th 1928 - 2 months
Catherine (Kate) O’Brien - July 27th 1929 - 25 years
Eliza (Lizzie) McCarthy - September 23rd 1932 - 26 years
Margaret Mahony - December 5th 1940 - 40 years
Josephine Larkin - January 10th 1942 - 19 years
Mary Cuddihy - December 30th 1942 - 39 years
Nellie Grosse - September 18th 1943 - 58 years
Mabel Jessie Huckvale - January 21st 1953 - 82 years
Elizabeth Susie Hope - September 21st 1957 - 47 years
Joan Twomey - June 25th 1958 - 62 years
Louise Bridget O’Leary - March 23rd 1974 - 81 years
Julia O’Donoghue - May 17th 1984 - 81 years
Ann Walsh - January 23rd 1985 - 85 years
I admire your devotion to this project. You tell the stories of these mothers with such care and empathy. Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Beautifully researched, Daniel. I wonder about her parents' marriage. I can see there is no divorce (her father could certainly afford one) which means her father's second marriage was bigamous. In England, as in Ireland, marital separation was a shameful thing. I wonder how much this overshadowed young Mabel's life.
My guess is that her first baby was buried in the common pit at one of Croydon's cemeteries, but it's difficult to be certain.