People on board

GILMORE, Robert Albert

Robert Albert Gilmore was born on the 19th of June 1894 in Oxford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin to Samuel and Margaret Gilmore (née Gilmore). Robert was the eldest of their surviving four children, the eldest dying within hours of birth. Samuel Gilmore, originally a Farmer from Kesh, Co Fermanagh had joined the Dublin Metropolitan Police in 1884 and gave his address as Dublin on his marriage certificate in 1891. The family had moved from Ranelagh to Carnew Street in Stoneybatter by the time the youngest child was born in 1900. Samuel was then a Sergeant in the DMP. The family gave their religion as Methodist in the censuses.

Samuel retired from the DMP in 1906 and in the 1911 census he gave his occupation as Sexton. The family was living in Adelaide Street, in two rooms attached to the Mariners Church. Robert, then aged sixteen, was a ’Boy Clerk, Estate’s Comms.’ The following year it was announced in the London Gazette that he was appointed as an Assistant Clerk (Abstractor) in the Irish Land Commission. Some time before 1918 Samuel Gilmore moved with his family to Rathgar where he was employed as Sexton in the Brighton Road Methodist Church.

The limited military records available show that in 1918 Robert Gilmore was a Corporal in the Royal Engineers attached to “A” G.H.Q. Signal Company. The records do not show when or where he enlisted or where he had served. He was presumably returning to his unit after home leave when he travelled on the 10th of October 1918 on RMS Leinster. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and taken to the King George V hospital in Dublin. He was buried in the Wesleyan section of Grangegorman Military Cemetery.

A headstone was erected in his memory by the Congregation of Brighton Road Methodist church. Two other civilians from the congregation also lost their lives in the sinking, Edwin Ferber and Arthur Adshead, both of whose bodies were returned to England.