People on board

CARR, Josephine

Josephine was born on the 4th of October 1897, the second youngest child of five, to Samuel Carr and Catherine O’Sullivan. Samuel gave his occupation as ‘Tailor’. The family lived in Horgan’s Buildings, off Magazine Road, near University College, Cork, these were labourers’ cottages built in 1891 by Cork Corporation. In the 1901 census they were classified as 2nd class houses, built of brick with a slate roof. Samuel was Church of Ireland, while Catherine was Catholic, but the children were brought up in the Protestant faith. Samuel died in 1914.

Josephine enrolled in the Wrens on the 16th September, 1918, giving her occupation as ‘Shorthand Typist’. It is not known if she knew Maureen Waters or Lilian Barry, who enrolled on the 1st October, but all three travelled on the RMS Leinster on the 10th October, presumably to their first posting. The events of that disaster were described by Maureen Waters in a letter to her parents, published by the Cork Examiner. She reported that she and Lilian Barry went on deck, leaving Josephine in the Reading Room of the ship. It was the last time she saw her as Josephine did not survive the sinking, and no trace of her body was ever found.

Josephine Carr is remembered as the first member of the Wrens to lose their life in the war.