People on board

McLOUGHLIN, John

John McLoughlin (Loughlin on military records) was born on the 20th of October 1876 to John McLoughlin and Anne Jennings. The family lived in Lawrencetown, near Ballinasloe in east county Galway where John was a Farmer. There were eight children born between 1864 and 1881, John being the sixth, just two sons and six daughters. On the birth certificates John gave his occupation as Farmer, then Post Master (1869-73) and then Clerk of Petty Sessions (from 1874) sometimes including Farmer. The Clerk of Petty Sessions was quite a prestigious local role, involving all the recording and paperwork connected to the work of the local Magistrate in the weekly or fortnightly Court.

In the 1901 census John McLoughlin Snr. was given as the Clerk of Petty Sessions and his son John was a Farmer. The roles were reversed in the 1911 census; it was not unusual for the position to be passed to a family member on retirement, as it was the local gentry who nominated the Clerk. In 1911 John Jun. was thirty-five and single as were his two sisters also living in the home. John Snr. died in 1916 aged seventy-one.

According to his medal card, John McLoughlin enlisted first with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Service Number 13342, possibly with the 8th Battalion, later transferring to the Royal Defence Corps. No other original records have been found but a transcript states that he enlisted at St Helen’s, presumably in Merseyside.

Presumably returning from leave in Galway he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton.