People on board

DEE, Hannah

Hannah Dee (registered as Johana) was born on the 1st of April 1883 to Patrick Dee, a Labourer, and Margaret Quilter. She was the fifth of their ten children. The family lived at Curraghwensha, Lisselton in north Kerry. Margaret Dee died in 1900 aged forty-seven and in the 1901 census Hannah, aged seventeen, was the eldest of the family at home. She was not in the 1911 census in Curraghwensha in 1911 but a Hannah Dee, aged twenty-seven and born in Kerry, was a Domestic Servant in the Warner Household in St Edward’s Terrace in Rathgar. This was the only Hannah Dee living in Dublin in that census,

It is not known why she was on board RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918 but she survived the sinking. She gave an interview to the Irish Independent which was published on the 12th where she gave an address at 7 Camden Buildings, Dublin. She said that she went up on deck after the first torpedo struck and was pitched into the sea by the force of the second explosion. Her leg was injured by a piece of wreckage and she tried to cling on to a life raft. Twice she was swept off by waves but was eventually pulled aboard by others already on the raft.

Hannah Dee went on to marry Michael Doyle, a Labourer, the following month on the 9th of November. They were married in Ballyboden, Co Dublin, the address both gave on the marriage certificate. It is not known if they had children. Hannah Doyle née Dee died in Tralee in 1978 aged ninety-five and was buried in Killehenny cemetery.