David (Mr Mac) McCarthy MBE
THE death of David (Mr Mac) McCarthy on January 17, 2024, just 40 days before his 100th birthday, marks the end of an era.
Brought up in Crumpsall, Manchester, he joined Barclays Bank before the war, during which he served in the Royal Artillery, staying with Barclays until retirement. Following his marriage to Nancy and the arrival of Ian, he moved to Woodstock, his home (and the spiritual one of Waterway Recovery Group North West) for the next 60 years, only leaving 10 years ago when he followed Ian and daughter Jane to Rossendale.
His interest in canals was aroused by a family boating holiday in the 60s. He joined the Peak Forest Canal Society and started providing his famed refreshments for volunteers in 1971. The appearance of him and Nancy, bringing near infinite supplies of hot tea and only slightly more limited ones of broken biscuits, was never more welcome than during the ‘ Rochdale 9’ clearance in the bitterly cold, early weeks of 1973.
After the Cheshire Ring reopened in 1974 he supported the PFCS volunteers as they began working on other canals, the group ultimately becoming WRG North West in 1977. Typical was his response to the poor washing facilities in a hall in Droitwich one particularly muddy weekend. w He bought the local hardware h shop’s entire stock of o washing-up bowls, boiled every e urn, kettle and pan he could c find and produced bowl b upon bowl of hot water for f the returning ‘navvies’. That Th the bowls were on the car park p wall in full public view was w of minor importance.
As NW’s work grew, more m funds were needed so, s in January 1978, he started s a waste paper collection. This continued until 2018, stopping, 405 collections later, only when the merchant could take no more paper. Throughout that time, with limited help, he wrote, duplicated and delivered newsletters, phoned volunteers, booked skips, claimed grants and, for most of the time, organised lunch and washed up after it. Collections ultimately totalled 4000 tonnes, making it a significant environmental project in its own right.
If that was not enough, for much of this period he and Nancy also ran the NW publicity/sales stand, raising yet more money while helping to recruit new ‘navvies’. It’s impossible accurately to value his labours but the waste paper collections alone raised more than £60,000.
His contribution to the waterway movement was recognised in 1986 with the Inland Waterways Association’s premier award, the Cyril Styring Trophy, followed by an MBE in 2001. Never was such recognition more richly deserved.