People on board

MOONEY, William

William Mooney was born on the 28th of September 1887 in Coolegreane, Dowra, Co Leitrim to Michael Mooney, a Farmer, and Ellen Fee. William was the second youngest of their seven children, six of whom were alive in 1911. William was not in Ireland for the 1911 census and may have emigrated to the US by that time.

 In 1918 he was in New York and it was there in April that he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He declared that he was single and gave his occupation as Labourer, but he also declared his date of birth as the 8th of August 1882, thus appearing to be five years older than he actually was. He gave his address as Bowery Street, New York. He was five feet four and a half inches tall, with a tattoo on his left forearm. He filled out a military Will bequeathing his personal estate to his mother Ellen in Dowra, Co Leitrim, his father Michael having died in 1916, aged seventy three.

Having arrived in Europe with the 1st Central Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Infantry William Mooney was presumably deployed in France and after some months at the Front he would have been granted leave. It must be assumed that he was returning to duty when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. He did not survive the sinking and his body was not recovered. He is remembered on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.