Margaret McCurrey

Margaret McCurrey’s distinctive monument is a testament to her temperance. Margaret abstained from alcohol for 29 years, and her husband James for over 40.

Illustrations like this, from The Teetotaller publication, encouraged people to sign up to the Temperance Pledge. (Credit: Wellcome Collection)

The temperance movement took hold in Britain in the early 19^th century, and was closely linked to the movement to give working class people the vote. The idea was that sober people could be given the responsibly of voting.

The evils of alcohol, as depicted in by English-American temperance reformer John B Gough. He visited Britain several times in the 1850s to speak about abstinence and prohibition. (Credit: Internet Archive / Sunlight & Shadow (1880))

The temperance organisations used moral arguments to persuade people to abstain from ‘all liquors of an intoxicating quality’. By contrast, the prohibitionists argued for a complete ban on selling alcohol, as happened in America. Passionate orators like schoolteacher James Raper travelled the country, speaking out in favour of avoiding alcohol.

Margaret is buried beneath this unusual monument, with her husband, their children and grandchildren. (Credit: Greywolf)

Many groups, including the Methodists, the Salvation Army and the British Women’s Temperance Society, educated people about the perils of drink and argued for restricting its sale. Many, like Margaret and her husband, were persuaded of the benefits, and perhaps their long lives can be put down to such clean living.

‘Drink only of the living water’ (Credit: Greywolf)

Further information

• Wikipedia