Thomas Bradley was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 8th September 1895, the son of Robert Jackson and Mary Bradley (née Stephenson). His father was a railway porter and Thomas was the youngest of ten children, of whom only nine were alive in 1911. Thomas was named after an older, deceased sibling, who was also named Thomas, and who had been born in 1890 and died in 1892. By 1915, his family resided at 13. Crete Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool, a street which has since been demolished.
Thomas Bradley signed on as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool, on the 12th April 1915 for what would be the liner’s last ever voyage to America and reported for duty at 8 a.m. on the 17th April, the day she left the River Mersey. As a trimmer, his monthly rate of pay was £6-0s-0d. and upon engagement, he was given an advance on his pay of £1-0s-0d.
Thomas Bradley was killed when she was sunk on the afternoon of the 7th May while
off the Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland. He was aged 19 years, although he is listed as being aged 21 years on the crew manifest and the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
His body was not recovered and identified afterwards and as a consequence, his name is embossed on the Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, National School Admission Registers and Log Books 1870 – 1914, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 18th December 2022.