Joseph Locke (Irish Tenor 1917 - 1999)

zoom

Josph Lock (Irish Tenor 1917 - 1999)

Source;''Kentucky Irish-American'' newspaper |1956]

The great singer Joseph Locke was born Joseph McLaughlin in Londonderry, the son of a butcher and cattle dealer in March 1917. He was one of 10 children. After school he joined the Irish Guards and later served in Palestine police before in the late 1930’s returning to Ireland. He then became a policeman in Ireland where is was known as the singing bobby. Locke later went to London on the advice of John McCormack (qv). In London he worked for bandleader Jack Hylton, who was responsible for his new name. He made his first recording in 1947. He resided in Blackpool up until 1958 when he  left England, to return to Ireland. He later resided at Nullamore on Whitshed Road in Greystones. In his later years he went to live in Clane in County Kildare and died in October 1999.