Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1920 & 29

John Edwin Calvert Lord (1860 - 1926)


J. E.C. Lord ran a company of Tar Distillers and Manufacturing Chemists in Weaste and did a great deal of social work in Salford.

 

John was born in Huddersfield in 1860, the son of Henry Lord, Photo Artist. He became a Joiner and in the mid 1880s he came to Manchester as a concreter and asphalter with premise in Dale Street. He contracted successfully for work for the Great Central Railway Company, constructing the line between Nottingham and London. He also did a lot of work for Lancashire cotton mills. In 1897 he founded J E C Lord Ltd, Tar Distillers and Manufacturing Chemists in Borough Road, Weaste. By 1900 he had a contract with Salford Corporation gas works to purchase all surplus tar generated at the various gas works in the borough. Tar from the Regent Road gas works was delivered by pipeline.

 

The main product produced at the Tar Works was creosote and by 1906, its "Ocean" installation in Wyre Street, Weaste, was the first in England to export creosote. The company grew, with additional works at Bootle and Middlesbrough exporting to Europe and USA. John became chairman of British Creosote Co. Ltd with headquarters in Glasgow, and a founder and director of National Benzol Co (London). In 1921 his business in Weaste converted into a limited company and by the time he died in 1926 it had 200 employees.

 

In 1894, John married Sarah Ann Boardman, the daughter of William Boardman, engine fitter of Barton-upon-Irwell, at the Stowell Memorial Church on Trafford Road, Salford. She was 12 years younger than John. They lived at "The Willows" on Weaste Lane until 1919 when they moved to St. Anne's-on-Sea.

John was a member and treasurer of Weaste Congregational Church. He was president of John Street Ragged School and Mission, president of Windsor Institute (Pendleton Ragged School) and president of Weaste Cricket Club. He was a member of Royal Salford Masonic Lodge and founder of West Salford Lodge. He was appointed a magistrate in 1906.

 

It was at their home in St. Anne's-on-Sea that John became ill and died suddenly on 8th October 1926. He was 66 years old. Sarah Ann lived for another 24 years and died on 3rd July 1950, aged 78 years. She was buried with her husband in plot O of Weaste Cemetery.
 

The Salford City Reporter of 15th June 1907 records "The opening ceremony of the new Pendleton Ragged School was performed by Mr J.E.C. Lord JP. The school began in 1858 in a cottage in Croft Street. From there it moved to Ellor Street and then in 1902 to Chapel Street, Pendleton. Here the number of pupils increased rapidly and a second school was established in Peel Street. In 1906 the Chapel Street premises were required by the owners and so the Trustees of the Ragged School purchased the present building which was formerly the New Windsor Congregational Church."

 

The Salford City Reporter of 20th Nov 1909 records "Mr J.E.C. Lord JP performed the foundation stone laying ceremony for a new Congregational church in Weaste Road on Saturday 13th November. The existing church has become too small for the increasing congregation and although the new one will be similar in design it will have accomm- odation for 650 compared to 400. The building will have red brick and Ruabon terracotta walls, a tiled roof and oak fittings and furnishings."

 

The Salford City Reporter of 5th November 1910 records "On Saturday, Mr J.E.C. Lord JP opened the new Congregationalist Church which has been erected in Weaste Road."

 

The Salford City Reporter of 14th September 1918 records "Mr Lloyd George was to have received the Freedom of Salford at the Technical Institute yesterday, but he was unable to come. In a letter to the Mayor, Alderman Huddart, he promised to visit Salford at a later date. After the ceremony, Mrs Lloyd George was to have unveiled a memorial erected in Peel Park by Mr J.E.C. Lord of Weaste, to the memory of the men of the Salford Battalions who have fallen in the war. The granite memorial is surmounted by a marble figure representing an "Angel of Faith". Bronze panels on the four sides of the pedestal depict phases on the battlefields. Mr Lord has been a generous supporter of the Lancashire Fusiliers prisoners of war fund and he is understood to have offered his house, "The Willows" to the Corporation to be used as a Convalescent hospital. Mr and Mrs Lord are shortly to move to St.Anne's on Sea."

 

The Salford City Reporter of 3rd April 1920 records "On Saturday afternoon the Mayor Alderman Hughes, unveiled a war memorial at Weaste Cemetery. It is a statue in white marble of an Angel of Peace on a massive pedestal of granite with the inscription: "Erected to the memory of the men who, having laid down their lives in defence of the Empire, were interred in this cemetery. Their names liveth for evermore". The memorial is a gift of Mr J.E.C Lord of The Willows, Weaste.