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In the Figures

MCCORMICK, James Hanna

James Hanna Mccormick
1875 – 1955
Portrait of Major James Hanna McCormick, D.S.O., in Canadian Expeditionary Force uniform
Major James Hanna McCormick, D.S.O. Period portrait. Public domain.
Born
1875-09-20
Belfast, Ireland
Died
1955-05-04
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Role
Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for Belfast St Anne's, 1929–1938; DSO; author and CEF lieutenant
Belfast-born soldier and writer whose adult life ran in two halves: in Canada, he was deputy mayor of Lloydminster, a militia officer, and the author of two early Saskatchewan books, then took a CEF commission and won the DSO in 1918. After the war he returned to Ireland and served nine years as an Ulster Unionist in the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

James Hanna McCormick had two careers on two continents. In Canada, he was deputy mayor of a prairie Barr-colony town, a militia officer, and the author of two early Saskatchewan books. He took a commission with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, was recommended for the Victoria Cross, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1918. He returned to Ireland after the war and sat in the Parliament of Northern Ireland for nine years as the Ulster Unionist member for Belfast St Anne’s.

Early life

McCormick was born in Belfast on 20 September 1875 to Thomas McCormick and Elizabeth Hanna McCormick. He emigrated to Canada as a young man; the sailing is not recorded in the Library and Archives Canada passenger lists for the years under which the age-band fits, and the exact date remains open. He saw his first military service in the South African War of 1899–1902 with an Irish Horse regiment.

Saskatchewan

By 1908 McCormick had taken up in Lloydminster, the Barr-colony town straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. He held the deputy mayor’s office there in 1908 and sat on the town council in 1911. He held a simultaneous militia commission with the 22nd Saskatchewan Light Horse.

He wrote two books drawing on his prairie settlement experience. The Greater Saskatchewan appeared in 1910, a boosterist volume on the young province. Lloydminster, or 5,000 Miles with the Barr Colonists followed in 1909 — an account of Isaac Barr’s 1903 English settler movement to the district. Both titles are now out of print and held mainly in provincial archives and university special-collections libraries.

War service

McCormick enlisted in the 197th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and took a lieutenant’s commission. His Officer’s Declaration Paper, held at Library and Archives Canada, records his occupation as auctioneer and his stated religion as “Irish Protestant.” He was recommended for the Victoria Cross by his brigade headquarters in 1918 and was gazetted with the Distinguished Service Order; the DSO citation is recoverable through the London Gazette online supplement search under his surname and service number.

Northern Ireland

McCormick moved back to Ireland at some point after the Armistice. The new Northern Ireland government gave him two successive chairmanships: the Appeal Court, 1921 to 1924, and then the labour-ministry appeal tribunals from 1928 into 1929. He stood for the newly-drawn Belfast St Anne’s seat in 1929 as an Ulster Unionist and won it, taking a place in the Parliament of Northern Ireland. The constituency returned him through the 1930s; he retired in 1938 and Edmond Warnock succeeded him.

Death

McCormick died at Belfast on 4 May 1955, at the age of seventy-nine.

Sources

  1. Canadian Expeditionary Force Officer's Declaration Paper — J. H. McCormick, 197th Battalion — Primary attestation record at Library and Archives Canada. Occupation: auctioneer. Stated religion: Irish Protestant.
  2. The London Gazette — Distinguished Service Order, 1918 supplements — Primary gazette record for McCormick's DSO. Searchable by surname and regimental service number.
  3. CAIN — Northern Ireland parliamentary election results, Belfast constituencies — Ulster University's archive gives the results for Belfast St Anne's at each 1929–1938 election, with McCormick as Ulster Unionist incumbent.
  4. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Parliament of Northern Ireland, 1929–1938 — Primary record of McCormick's nine sessions in the Stormont chamber. Held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).
  5. McCormick, J. H. Lloydminster, or 5,000 Miles with the Barr Colonists. Toronto: The Musson Book Company, 1909. — Primary-source monograph by the subject. Digital copy accessible through Canadiana; print holdings across Canadian university libraries.
  6. McCormick, J. H. The Greater Saskatchewan. 1910. — Second monograph by the subject. Provincial boosterist volume; holdings at the Saskatchewan Archives Board and the University of Saskatchewan.
  7. James Hanna McCormick — Wikipedia — Tertiary overview only; every material claim on this page is verified against the primary sources above, not against the Wikipedia article.

Further reading

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  1. Lloydminster, or 5,000 Miles with the Barr Colonists — By J. H. McCormick, 1909. Out of print; Amazon listing is for used copies of the original Drane's printing. Also available digitally through Canadiana.ca.
  2. The Greater Saskatchewan— By J. H. McCormick, 1910. Early provincial promotional volume; holdings in the Saskatchewan Archives Board.