People on board

LAWLER, Patrick

Patrick Lawler was born on the 20th of September 1896 to Thomas Lawler and Mary Anne Doran, their only child. The address given on the birth certificate was St John, outside Castledermot, Co Kildare. The family later lived at Upper Turnpike in the townland of Skennagun. Thomas was a Labourer and in June 1903 he sued for compensation for personal injury received while threshing corn.

Patrick Lawler enlisted in the Connaught Rangers, Service Number 6315, later transferring to the Machine Gun Corps. The limited military records available do not show when or where he enlisted or where he served. He was presumably returning from leave in Castledermot when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered.

It was 1919 before it was formally accepted that he had drowned. As yet his name is not recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton for servicemen and women whose graves are not known, nor is it listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission list.