R.M.S. Leinster: People on board




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Michael Carroll

CARROLL, Michael

Michael Carroll was born on the 12th of February 1893 in Kilmacud, south Dublin. He was the eldest of the five children of Thomas Carroll and Bridget Doyle, only four of whom were alive in 1911. Thomas Carroll was a Labourer, sometimes a ‘Herd’, and had been born in Co Wicklow, as had his mother, Bridget Doyle. Thomas died in November 1904 leaving his widow with four children under the age of eleven. In the 1911 census Michael, then aged eighteen, was a ‘Plumbing Apprentice’, while sixteen year old John was a ‘Gardener Apprentice’.

www.emedals.com

The relevant military records only show that Michael Carroll entered the war in the Balkans on the 7th of August 1915 as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and was later promoted to Corporal. It is not known what his specific role was but he would have been part of the large medical infrastructure which the British Army built up in the eastern Mediterranean from 1915 to 1918. In addition much of the work of the army in that area was in policing and humanitarian work and visits to villages by members of the R.A.M.C. were often the only medical attention that the local people received. Michael Carroll received the Obilich Medal from the Serbian government for ‘’acts of great personal courage”, though no details are known.

He was presumably returning from leave with his family when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered in the Isle of Man. He is buried in Kirk Patrick Holy Trinity Churchyard in Glenfaba on the Isle of Man, with a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone. Also buried in the same churchyard are Private Arthur Lott and Private George Lutton who were also on RMS Leinster.

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