People on board

QUINSEY, Henry

Henry Quinsey was born on the 22 September 1881 at Clonmore, Ballyhuskard near Enniscorthy in Co Wexford to Adam Quinsey and Eliza Bennett. He was the youngest of their identified nine children. The Quinseys were a Church of Ireland farming family with other branches in the area. The eldest son, Thomas, emigrated to Halifax, England to a Bennett uncle, later followed by a younger brother, Arnold. The second eldest daughter, Sarah, emigrated to the US. Another of Henry’s siblings died at the age of seven and two more in their late twenties and early forties.

Adam Quinsey died in 1901 and in the 1901 census only John, aged twenty-seven and Henry, aged nineteen were with their widowed mother. All three gave their occupation as Farmer. In 1911 they were joined by their eldest sister Ellen, then aged forty-three and Eliza Jane, aged thirty-seven who would die in 1914. Their house was categorised as 1st Class with seven rooms.

Henry Quinsey enlisted at Enniscorthy in the South Irish Horse which in September 1917 became the 7th Service Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment. It is not known when he enlisted, but he almost certainly served in France and Belgium. His rank was Shoeing Smith. He was presumably returning from leave at home when he travelled on the 10th of October on RMS Leinster. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. A memorial to the regiment is in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.