Cornelius Driscoll was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 11th January 1895, the son of Michael and Catherine ‘Kate’ Driscoll (née Gagan, Gargan, or even Geoghegan, depending on the spelling). His father was a professional seaman in the British Mercantile Marine, serving as a greaser on steam ships, and Cornelius was the youngest of seven known children in the family.
The family home was at Braemer Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool; however as was common at that time, the family moved between houses on the street and were known to have lived at numbers 44 and 16a, before settling at number 10.
On completing his education, Cornelius worked as a ship’s scaler before following his father by joining the British Mercantile Marine as a waiter on passenger ships.
He engaged as a third class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania in April 1915, at a monthly rate of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.) and reported for duty on the morning of the 17th, before the Cunarder left Liverpool for the last time. He was aged 20 years.
Having safely arrived in New York, he was killed when the great liner sank off the coast of southern Ireland as she was returning to Liverpool on the 7th May 1915. His body was recovered from the sea after the sinking, and it was landed at Queenstown. Before
it was positively identified in one of the temporary mortuaries there, it was given the reference number 65.
Once a positive identification had been made, however, it was buried, on the 10th May 1915 in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, in Mass Grave C, 1st Row, Lower Tier. This was the day when most of the victims of the disaster were buried, following a long procession from the town, which began outside the Cunard Steam Ship Company office at Lynch Quay.
Despite the fact that Waiter Driscoll has an identifiable burial site, however, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was not aware of the fact and after the Great War, placed his name on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing at Tower Hill, London.
However, once Graham Maddocks had established beyond doubt that he was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, the Commission agreed to erect a permanent memorial to him where he is buried, and this was done in November 1998.
The memorial takes the form of a monument made from Irish limestone, sited at the head of Mass Grave B, the centre one of the three. The names of crew members buried in the three mass graves are incised on two black granite panels on the memorial, with a legend in between them, which reads: -
1914 - 1918
IN HONOURED MEMORY
OF THOSE NAMED WHO,
SERVING ON THE
RMS LUSITANIA,
DIED WHEN THE SHIP WAS
SUNK BY ENEMY ACTION
ON 7 MAY 1915
AND ARE BURIED NEARBY
The name of Waiter Driscoll is incised on the left hand panel.
The Commission has also stated that should it ever be necessary to renew the panel bearing his name on the Tower Hill Memorial, his name would be omitted from its replacement.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Catholic Baptisms 1741 – 1919, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/38271, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 25th March 2023.