People on board

CRONIN, Joseph

Joseph Cronin was born on the 19th of May 1898 in Gortavalla, near Cappamore, in County Limerick to James Cronin and Bridget Maher. Joseph was the youngest of their fifteen children, seven of whom were alive in 1911. James was a Labourer but he did not appear at home in either the 1901 or 1911 censuses, though Bridget declared herself as ‘married’. When one of their sons, Denis, married in 1916 his marriage certificate stated that James was dead.

Joseph Cronin enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps in Limerick, but his limited military records do not indicate when. In October 1918 he was in the 4th Reserve H.T. Depot, a Horse Transport Company based in Bradford. He was presumably returning to his unit after leave at home when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October.

He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman military cemetery in Dublin. His mother Bridget died in Cappamore in 1930, aged seventy-seven.