People on board

HUGHES, James

James Hughes was born in County Tyrone on the 10th of July 1896 to John Hughes and Rose Ann McKee, the ninth of their twelve children who were all alive in 1911. John Hughes was a Farmer and the family lived in Anagasna Glebe, Moy, a townland south of the town of Dungannon. In Griffith’s Valuation (1830s – 1850s) there were eight men of the name of Hughes each holding small amounts of land in the townland. In the 1901 census there were only three Hughes families there. John and Rose Ann were living in a 2nd class house with five rooms.

John Hughes died in December 1910 and the following April’s census shows Rose Ann with six daughters and four sons at home, the eldest five all described as Farmer’s Son or Daughter and possibly all working with their mother on the farm. At this stage James was still at school. When he enlisted in the Royal Navy in December 1915 he gave his former occupation as ‘Shipyard Labourer’, which suggests that he had moved to Belfast or Britain by then. He gave his date of birth as 1897.

He served on several ships in the following years when his Character was given as Very Good and his Ability as Satisfactory. He was serving on HMS Walrus in October 1918 and was presumably returning from leave in Anagasna when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Plymouth War Memorial and on the Dungannon War Dead website.