People on board

SALTON, William James Alexander

William James Alexander Salton was born in 1899 in the St Pancras area of London to William George Salton and Emily Lloyd. William George was a ‘French Polisher’, in the 1911 census adding ‘Pianoforte’. William James was the eldest of their four children, the others all being girls and one, Elsie, dying at the age of one. The family were living at Vicar’s Road in 1901 and on Belmont Street in 1911, both in St Pancras.

It is not known when William James Salton enlisted in the Middlesex Hussars at Hounslow, but probably towards the end of the war. Though not specified on the limited war record available, it is likely that he was with the reserve 2/1st Regiment which had moved to Ireland in May 1918. Whether returning home on leave or preparing to go to the front, he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October, along with seven others from the regiment. None of the eight survived the sinking but William Salton’s body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin.