John Henry Jackopson was born in Liverpool on June 23, 1881. His father, Charles Ludwig Jackopson was probably Norwegian, although this is not certain. His mother, Sarah Ann, was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland. The couple married in Liverpool and had five children. Very little is known about John’s early life, mainly because his surname was frequently misspelled so records are hard to identify with any certainty.
When John’s father died, in 1896, his mother went to live with her married daughter, Mary Thalia Gibson in Kirkdale, Lancashire. John probably also lived with her but, by this time, he was already working at sea so doesn’t show on any census. On March 30 1903, John married Catherine McCabe in Liverpool.
In 1907 he moved to Southampton. They had four children, the first two, Charles and Thomas, born in Liverpool and Cornelia and Catherine born in Southampton. Tragically, Catherine died within a few weeks of her birth.
The move to Southampton was most likely prompted by John’s work as a ship’s Fireman. His last ship before joining Titanic was the merchant steamer Highland Brae, a far smaller ship than Titanic, carrying around sixty or so passengers. When John signed onto Titanic the family were living at 97 Dukes Road. His wages would have been £6 a month.
On April 14, at 12:40 P.M. Titanic strikes a glancing blow against an iceberg, which makes incisions in her hull. Unable to stay afloat, the ship took on too much water and sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
John was not one of the lucky stokers who were fortunate enough to man a boat or find another way to save themselves. He perished when the ship went down. His body was never identified.
Catherine must have been devastated by the news. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a son just weeks after the sinking. She named the child John, after his father. To add to her misery and tragedy, baby John only lived a few months.
In late 1913, Catherine married Charles George Hatcher and went on to have two more children. She lived in Southampton until her death in 1951. John’s children also remained in Southampton. Thomas married Florence Spencer in 1946 but had no children. He died in 1974. Charles married Doris Glasspool Plummer and had five children. He died in 1942. Cornelia married Robert Fuller and had four children. She died in 1991.
Sources[]
Special thanks and credits to Marie Keates for allowing me to use a large part of this information of her blog:
https://iwalkalone.co.uk/titanic-tales-from-st-denys-part-two/: Titanic tales from St Denys part two – I Walk Alone