Nicholas Leahy: Merchant Seaman
Nicholas Leahy was born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland in 1892, and named after his father's brother. He was the son of William Leahy and Catherine Cadogan, who were married [(William) (Catherine)] in Kinsale on 23 July 1881.
William Leahy was born on 29 April 1860 in World's End, Kinsale. He worked as a fisherman, and, while his name appears in the 1901 census, it is absent from the 1911 census.[1] In 1901, his conjugal family lived at 23 Friars Street, Kinsale, but, by 1911, it had relocated to 14 Cork Street, Kinsale and, by 1917, to 16 Cork Street. William may have died in the years between the two censuses. However, his name continues to appear in (Guy's) City & County Almanac and Directory for 1910 / 1913 / 1921 / 1925 and 1930, but this may indicate nothing more than that his family, and not necessarily he, still lived in Cork Street. His name does not appear in the directories before 1910, nor in the 1940 directory.
Catherine Cadogan was born on 13 July 1860 in World's End, Kinsale, and appears to have died in Kinsale at the age of 80 in 1941. She bore eleven children, but only six were living in 1911.[2]
According to the 1911 census, Nicholas was already a 'sailor' by the age of 19. Sadly, the Register of Merchant Seamen, 1913-1917, the period crucial in reconstructing the career of Nicholas Leahy, was destroyed by the Board of Trade in 1969. We do know that in 1917, he was a deck hand on the SS Saint Quentin, which had been commandeered by the Royal Navy and given the prefix HMT (Hired Military Transport).
William Leahy was born on 29 April 1860 in World's End, Kinsale. He worked as a fisherman, and, while his name appears in the 1901 census, it is absent from the 1911 census.[1] In 1901, his conjugal family lived at 23 Friars Street, Kinsale, but, by 1911, it had relocated to 14 Cork Street, Kinsale and, by 1917, to 16 Cork Street. William may have died in the years between the two censuses. However, his name continues to appear in (Guy's) City & County Almanac and Directory for 1910 / 1913 / 1921 / 1925 and 1930, but this may indicate nothing more than that his family, and not necessarily he, still lived in Cork Street. His name does not appear in the directories before 1910, nor in the 1940 directory.
Catherine Cadogan was born on 13 July 1860 in World's End, Kinsale, and appears to have died in Kinsale at the age of 80 in 1941. She bore eleven children, but only six were living in 1911.[2]
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| click on image to enlarge |
The steamship, Saint Quentin, was launched on 24 January 1914, and built on the Clyde by William Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow.
Nicholas Leahy died on the 11th of September 1917 at Salonika, modern Thessaloniki in Greece. Salonika was the main port of entry and allied supply base for the Macedonian Front in the First World War. We have no information on the manner of Nicholas' death, but can offer the following likely scenario:
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| Salonika Harbour 1916 Photo credit: Stuart Roberts |
Nicholas Leahy died on the 11th of September 1917 at Salonika, modern Thessaloniki in Greece. Salonika was the main port of entry and allied supply base for the Macedonian Front in the First World War. We have no information on the manner of Nicholas' death, but can offer the following likely scenario:
- The Saint Quentin, as a military transport vessel, was sent to Salonika, with four other ships [3], in order to transfer elements of the 10th (Irish) Division from Greece to Alexandria and Palestine [4]. The 10th Division had been ordered to assemble at the port on 18 August 1917 for embarkation, and it is assumed that the ships arrived around that date.
- After the First Battle of Doiran in May 1917, the Macedonian front was relatively quiet, and the HMT Saint Quentin would have remained safe in its anchorage while docked in Salonika Harbour. The ship survived the war intact, and was eventually scrapped in 1932.
- The Macedonian Front was famously pestilential, and rife with malaria, blackwater fever and dysentery. Sailing into Salonika during the August - September period was the worst possible time, because the anopheles mosquito population was most active then. Consequently, deaths caused by malaria peaked at this time of the year. While waiting in the port of Salonika, Nicholas probably contracted a malignant form of malaria, and died as a result.
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| Source: Colonel Dennis Shanks |
Rudyard Kipling summed up conditions on the Macedonian Front in his poem, Salonikan Grave -
It is fever, and not the fight—
Time, not battle—that slays.
Nicholas Leahy is mentioned in the following:
Remembering World War One in Kinsale (World's End Memorial)
Notes
[1] An error in transcription of the 1911 census renders the surname as Leaky. It is possible that William may have died at sea.
[2] Surviving children" Margaret (born abt. 1883] married William Fitzpatrick, and was living next door to her mother in 1911 ; Nicholas (born abt. 1892) ; Kathleen [Catherine] (born abt. 1898) ; Joseph (born abt. 1900) ; Mary Cristina (born abt. 1902). The whereabouts of William (born abt. 1889) and Patrick (born abt. 1895) are unknown, but one was certainly deceased.
[3] Woodfin, Edward. Camp and Combat on the Sinai and Palestine Front: The Experience of the British Empire Soldier, 1916-18 (2012) p.69, n.14.
[4] The Royal Irish Regiment, 5th Service Btn (Pioneers) sailed from Salonika to Alexandria between 10-16 September 1917. The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers also departed in September 1917 ; Royal Dublin Fusiliers left on 9 September ; 1st Btn. Leinster left on 14 September ; Royal Irish Rifles left the first week in September.
[3] Woodfin, Edward. Camp and Combat on the Sinai and Palestine Front: The Experience of the British Empire Soldier, 1916-18 (2012) p.69, n.14.
[4] The Royal Irish Regiment, 5th Service Btn (Pioneers) sailed from Salonika to Alexandria between 10-16 September 1917. The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers also departed in September 1917 ; Royal Dublin Fusiliers left on 9 September ; 1st Btn. Leinster left on 14 September ; Royal Irish Rifles left the first week in September.
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