People on board

KEHOE, Francis

Francis (Frank) Kehoe was born in Wexford town on 29 January 1893 to John Kehoe and Catherine Murphy. John was a Mariner according to the marriage certificate, and when he and Catherine married in November 1883 his address was Oyster Lane and hers was Bride Street, both in the port area of the town. Five children were born, one dying in infancy, while they lived in Wexford and John worked as a Sailor. In 1900 the family moved to Glasthule, just beside Kingstown, where they lived at 36 Findlater Street, a three roomed cottage, recently built.

John worked as a Pilot for the Dublin Port and Docks Board, a more regular job than before. Two more sons were born there before the family made a final move to 2 Eden Terrace, a four roomed house, again built about 1898, where their family increased to ten with the birth of their final child in 1909.

Frank Kehoe was working with the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company from at least 1913, when the earliest available record show him as ‘Deck Boy’ on the SS Wicklow. In 1918 he was listed as ‘Seaman’ on RMS Leinster on 10 October. He did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered.

It would appear that some of his brothers continued in the transport and maritime sectors, as, at the funeral of their mother Catherine in 1940, there were representatives present from the Irish Lights Depot and the Great Southern Railways. The house at Eden Terrace remained in the family for many more years.