Mary Bridget Kenny was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, on the 13th July 1912, the daughter of Peter and Margaret Kenny (née Kenny!). Her parents had emigrated from Ireland in 1907, and her father was a longshoreman.
On 1st May 1913, Mary’s father died and her mother brought her to live with her aunt, Mrs. Mary Ellen Carroll, who was her mother’s sister at 44A. Park Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts. Mrs. Carroll and her husband, Patrick, had eleven children, and Mrs.
Carroll also ran a boarding house which Mary’s mother assisted her in running.
In the spring of 1915, Mary’s mother decided to make a return visit to her home and to take Mary with her - probably as none of her Irish relatives would have seen her at that time. Consequently, Margaret Kenny booked second cabin passage for them both on the May sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool at 10.00 o’clock on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Arriving from Charlestown on that morning in time to board her for her sailing, daughter and mother then had to wait until 12.27 p.m. before the Cunarder actually left port, because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and some crew members from the Anchor Liner S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20, only about 250 miles from her destination!
Both Mary Kenny and her mother lost their lives as a result of this action and as neither of their bodies was recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, neither has a known place of burial. Mary Kenny was only two years old!
Mary Ellen Carroll was awarded the sum of $2,500.00 in compensation for the loss of her sister, who she claimed contributed to the running of her household and her business.
In October 1915, in Dublin, administration of her estate was granted to her uncle, Francis Kenny, who was described as a farmer. Her effects amounted to £156-8s.-0d. (£156.40p.). This was a substantial amount of money for a young girl, who hadn’t yet reached her third birthday, and presumably she had been left this money by her father.
Massachusetts Birth Records 1840 – 1915, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2053, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/396, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.