People on board

O’HALLORAN, Alfred Edward

Alfred Edward O’Halloran was born in Liverpool in 1896 to Thomas Halloran and Winifred Gaughan (the name O’Halloran was first found in the 1911 census). He was the fourth of their five surviving children, two dying young, and the youngest son. Both Thomas and Winifred were born in Liverpool of Irish parents. He was a ‘Grain Sampler’, then a ‘Grain Foreman’ and in 1911 a ‘Corn Warehouseman’. The family lived in Norfolk Street and then Washington Street. Alfred attended the Jesuit St Francis Xavier schools in Everton before going to Liverpool University.

When Alfred first enlisted in late August 1916 he gave his occupation as ‘Student Teacher’. He was posted to the Training Reserve Battalion in Kinmel Park in Wales where his only reported misdemeanour was to be ‘Late for Falling In’ for which he was confined to barracks for two days. In July 1917 his record shows that he was discharged as ‘Medically Unfit’ but it was not until the 4th of October that he was compulsorily transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps. Initially with the Training Brigade, he moved to the 7th Company based in Devonport. He was presumably working in one of the military hospitals in Ireland in October 1918 and was returning home on leave when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th.

Alfred O’Halloran did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. His death was announced in the Liverpool Echo on the 22nd. His name is recorded on the War Memorial in St Francis Xavier’s R.C. School in Everton, on the Students’ Memorial in Liverpool University and on the Merseyside Roll of Honour.