Michael Corboy was born at King Street, Newry, County Armagh, Ireland, on the 25th August 1867, the son of Daniel and Mary Corboy (née Lavery). He was the youngest of three children, and his father was a railway porter who died in 1869, aged 32 years. In July 1872, his mother re-married, her second husband being a labourer named John Kelly.
By 1901, Michael and his mother, who had been widowed for a second time, moved to Liverpool, Lancashire, where Michael became a professional seaman and joined the British Mercantile Marine. He was unmarried and lived with his mother, who ran a boarding house for some time at 58. Gray Street, Bootle, Liverpool.
He served as a fireman in the Engineering Department on board the final voyage of the Lusitania and was killed when she sunk. He was aged 47 years, although Cunard records and the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission state his age as being 49 years.
His body was not found and identified afterwards and as a consequence, his name is embossed on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Irish Catholic Parish Registers 1655 – 1915, 1901 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 351/1/28663, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 15th January 2023.