People on board

HUTCHINSON, William Herbert

William Herbert Hutchinson was born in Nottingham in 1893 to Herbert William Hutchinson and Ruth Rowland. William was the eldest son of the nine children, seven of whom were alive in 1911. Herbert was a Dairyman and Fruit Shop Keeper and in the 1911 census Ruth was also working in the shop at 31 Willersley Street. In that same census William, aged seventeen, was working as a Porter, while his older sister Anne was working in the lace business. According to his death notice in 1918 William was then working at Dixon and Parker, Gentleman’s Outfitters, in Nottingham.

It is not known when William enlisted in the army but in 1918 he is recorded as being in the 7th Battalion of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry. Sections of this Yeomanry were transferred to Ireland in May 1918 which may account for William being on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918, or he may have been on leave there.

William Hutchinson did not survive the sinking of the ship but his body was later recovered in the Isle of Man. His body was identified by letters in his pocket from his family in Nottingham.  According to a notice in the Nottingham Evening Post on the 21st of November he was buried in Douglas on the 11th of November, aged twenty-five. In the Douglas cemetery he shares a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone with Horace Cook who also died on RMS Leinster. In the same cemetery is the body of RAF Private Thomas Cardiff who also died on RMS Leinster.

Photo and additional information from Fiona Hutchinson.