Mary met her future husband during an air raid on Liverpool in 1940, when Jim was 38 years old, and had settled into what his friends thought was, “a confirmed bachelorhood.” Mary had been too career-conscious to think of marriage and, at 31-years-old, was thought of as a spinster.
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: James McCartney
NickName: “Jim”
Description: The McCartney Family.
Known For: The Father of Paul McCartney
Location: United Kingdom
Date Born: 7th July 1902
Location Born: United Kingdom
Date Died: 18th March 1976
Location Died: United Kingdom
CONTACT DETAILS
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
James “Jim” McCartney
James “Jim” McCartney and Mary Patricia McCartney Born 29 September 1909 – 31 October 1956) were the parents of musician, author and artist Paul McCartney, best known for his work in The Beatles and Wings, and photographer and musician Mike McCartney, who worked with The Scaffold.
Like many families in Liverpool, the McCartney and Mohan families are from Irish descent. Jim worked for most of his life in the cotton trade, as well as playing in ragtime and jazz bands in Liverpool, while Mary was a trained nurse and midwife.
The McCartney family lived in council houses during Mary’s life, but Paul later bought his father a house called Rembrandt, in Heswall, Cheshire.
Jim encouraged his two sons to take up music by buying instruments for them to learn, as well as improving their status in life through education. Mary was Paul’s inspiration for the song, “Let It Be”. After Mary’s death, Jim married Angela Williams and adopted her daughter from a previous marriage, Ruth McCartney.
New evidence found in Scottish archives suggests that James McCartney moved with his family (including James McCartney II) from Ireland to Galloway, Scotland, around 1859, before moving south and settling in Liverpool.
62-year-old Jim was earning £10 a week in 1964, but Paul suggested that his father should retire, and bought “Rembrandt”; a detached mock-Tudor house in Baskervyle Road, Heswall, Cheshire, for £8,750.
Paul bought Jim a horse called “Drake’s Drum”, and a couple of years later, the horse won the race immediately preceding the Grand National.
Jim died of bronchial pneumonia on 18 March 1976.
Jim was cremated at Landican Cemetery, near Heswall, on 22 March 1976.
Mary Patricia Mohan was born at 2 Third Avenue, Fazakerley, Liverpool. When she was 11 years old, her mother, Mary Theresa Mohan, died giving birth to a fourth child, a daughter, who also died.
In 1923, at 14 years old, Mary started her training to become a nurse at the Alder Hey Hospital. She later transferred to Walton Road Hospital in Rice Lane, Liverpool, and after ten years reached the position of Sister.
Mary became a domiciliary health visitor and midwife, and was on-call day or night, riding a bicycle to houses where she was needed as a midwife.
Her eldest son, Paul, said his first memory was watching her cycling away when it was snowing heavily.
After she had been diagnosed with cancer, Mary (who was a heavy smoker) still carried on cycling to work, but often doubled up in pain and had trouble breathing.
The day Mary was due to have a mastectomy operation, she cleaned the McCartney house and laid Paul and Michael’s school clothes out ready for the next day. She said to Dill Mohan, her sister-in-law, “Now everything’s ready for them in case I don’t come back.”
Mary died of an embolism on 31 October 1956, after an operation to stop the spread of breast cancer.
Mary was buried on 3 November 1956 at Yew Tree Cemetery, Finch Lane, Liverpool.