People on board

McCARTHY, Thomas

Thomas McCarthy was born in Kinsale, Co Cork on the 27th of August 1894 to James McCarthy and Margaret Willis. He was the sixth of their seven children, six of them sons, all of whom were alive in 1911. James McCarthy was a Fisherman and in 1901 so too were the eldest sons John and Patrick. By 1911 nineteen year old James and seventeen year old Thomas were also Fishermen.

It is not known why Thomas and his older brother John were on board RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. John had married only the previous August. The Kerry News on the 11th reported an interview with John McCarthy in which he said that after the explosion he jumped overboard. He found a little girl of about six years in the water and put her into one of the boats. He got hold of a raft himself and was subsequently rescued. He said that his brother Thomas was in the water for about an hour before being rescued. That was the only reference to Thomas that has been found.

It is not clear if both brothers returned to Kinsale and stayed there. A son was born to John in Kinsale in 1919 but no further information about Thomas has come to light.