Katherine ’Kate’ Mary Duplex was born in Farnans, County Laois, Ireland, on the 30th September 1877, the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Duplex (née Moore). Her father was a farmer.
On completion of her education, she moved to Dublin where she worked first as a domestic servant for the Hogan family, who resided at Grosvenor, Rathmines, Dublin, and then as a housemaid and domestic servant at the Presentation Convent, Warrenmount, Merchants Quay, Dublin. The Presentation order of Catholic nuns was established in Dublin by Nano Nagle to established schools to educate girls in Ireland. The order still exists, managing schools in many parts of Ireland.
She immigrated to the United States of America on 2nd May 1914, when she arrived in New York on the
Baltic. She settled in New York, N.Y., where she was employed as a maid by Mrs. M. Herzog, 2352. Seventh Avenue.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return home for a holiday and consequently booked third class passage on the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool. She arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o’clock departure from the port. This was then postponed until the early afternoon whilst the liner took on board passengers and crew and loaded cargo from Anchor Liner the
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship.
Then, following a fairly uneventful voyage, six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, the
Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank within eighteen minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours steaming time away from her home port.
Unfortunately, Kate Duplex was killed as a result of this action and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 37 years at the time of her death.
Ireland Civil Registrations Births Index 1864 – 1958, Ireland Catholic Parish Registers 1655 – 1915, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/233, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.