Jane McKeon was born on her family’s farm at Toomans, Keshcarrigan, County Leitrim, on the 3rd October 1879, the daughter of Michael and Catherine McKeon (née Doherty). Although she was one of twelve children, by 1911, only Jane, and four of her brothers and two of her sisters were still alive.
In October 1908, she boarded the Teutonic in Queenstown and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in New York, in the United States of America, where she settled in New York City and found employment as a maid. Her brother, Michael, and sister, Ellen, were already residing in the city.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return home to visit her widowed mother and other relatives, and consequently booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania which was timetabled to leave New York for Liverpool on 1st May 1915.
Arriving at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing, she boarded with ticket number 38367 and then had to wait until the early afternoon for her actual departure, whilst the liner took on board passengers, cargo and some crew from the Anchor Lines ship Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship.
Six days later, 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 just 18 minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere fourteen hours away from her Liverpool destination. No doubt Miss McKeon would have been one of the many native born Irish people who had their first excited glimpse of their native land on the morning of that day, after the morning mist had cleared!
Unfortunately, however, she was also one of over 240 third class passengers to be killed as a result of this German action.
When she did not arrive at her home town, someone named MacHale, who must have been a relative or close friend, sent a telegram to Cunard in Liverpool seeking information about her. This simply stated: -
Jane McKeown (sic) not arrived here anxious will you please find out there which route she came and will pay your expenses.
Obviously at that time, there must have been hope that Jane McKeon had survived, but no doubt this soon faded when no word of her, dead or alive, was received. As her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave.
She was aged 35 years at the time of the sinking, although her age on the official passenger list stated her age to be 24 years!
A claim submitted to the U.S. State Department for compensation for the loss of her life and personal belongi
the Mixed Claims Commission ruled that Jane was a British subject at the time of her death, and no American citizen was financially affected by her loss.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 5425, NGMM, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.