Daniel Barrett was born in Ballyvorane South, Nohoval, near Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, on the 14th July 1896, the son of Cornelius and Hanora “Norah” Barrett (née Halloran). His father was a stoker in the Royal Navy, and Daniel was the second eldest of five children, all boys.
As well as attending school, Daniel and his brothers worked on the farm of his maternal grandfather, Daniel Halloran, with whom they lived, but by 1915, he had left home and travelled to Liverpool where he lived at 2, Middle Street, Liverpool.
He found employment with the Cunard Steam Ship Company as a fireman in the Lusitania's Engineering Department when the liner departed from Liverpool for New York on the 17th April 1915, and he was serving in the same capacity on the return voyage.
On the 7th May, as the great liner passed by the Old Head of Kinsale, and almost within sight of Daniel Barrett’s home, a torpedo launched by the German submarine, U-20, struck the Lusitania on her starboard side which resulted in her sinking within eighteen minutes. Daniel Barrett lost his life as a result, and if his remains were ever recovered, they were never identified. He was aged 18 years.
As his body was not recovered and identified afterwards, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 11th December 2022.