People on board

HANNA, Harold

Harold Hanna was born in Salford, Lancashire in 1900 to John Hanna and Mary Ann Lawley. He was the third youngest of their twelve children, ten of whom were alive in 1911. John Hanna was born in Dromore, Co Down and was working as a ‘Commercial Clerk’ in the 1901 census. In the 1911 census this was specified as ‘Clerk Railway Ship Canal’. The older children in the family were born in Wigan and Warrington but the family was in Salford by 1895, and they were living in 162 Hulton Street from at least 1901.

According to a brief biography relating to the Salford War Memorials Harold Hanna attended Salford Municipal Secondary School for Boys, later renamed Salford Grammar School. He then worked for the Cooperative Wholesale Society, Sun Mills. He initially enlisted in Manchester with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, later transferring to the 52nd Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. This was a Training Unit based in the Curragh, Co Kildare, where Harold Hanna was a Lance Corporal.

His brother George had joined the Territorial Army in 1915 and it is recorded in the Salford biography that he was due home from the Western Front in October 1918. Harold obtained leave to go home to see his brother which was why he was travelling on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered. He is remembered on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton as well as on the Salford Memorial.