John Prior was born on his family farm at Kiltyhugh, Cloverhill, County Leitrim, Ireland, on the 28th January 1886, the son of Patrick and Mary Prior (née McAweeny). He was one of the youngest of a large family; however it is not known how many children were actually in the family.
He had travelled to the United States of America, sometime between 1907 and 1909, and worked as a labourer in Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. On the 9th March 1909, he had declared his intention to become a naturalized U.S. citizen at Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1910, he returned to his home in Ireland, and on the 9th January 1911, he married Mary Anne McAweeny at Drumcong, County Leitrim, and had three children – Patrick James, born in October 1911, Mary, born in December 1912, and Rose, born
in April 1914. As his wife and mother had the same family name, it is possible that they were related.
On the 28th June 1913, he returned to the United States of America when he boarded the s.s. Caledonia in Londonderry. On this occasion, he settled in New York City, where he found work as a railroad man.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to return again to Ireland, perhaps, with the intention of bringing his wife and children back to New York City, and as a result, booked himself a third class ticket, (numbered 38370), on the Lusitania. He joined the vessel at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, before she sailed from there for the last time, just after mid-day, on 1st May 1915. She was scheduled to leave at 10.00 a.m., but her departure was delayed as she had to load cargo, passengers and some of the crew of the Anchor liner Cameronia, which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days later, John Prior was dead, killed on the afternoon of 7th May 1915, after the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, off the south coast of Ireland and only about fourteen hours away from the safety of her home port. As no trace of his body was ever found and identified, he has no known grave. Although his age on the official passenger list was recorded as being 25 years, he was actually aged 29 years!
In the early summer of 1915, his widow applied for financial help from The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up not long after the sinking by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen, to give financial help to those survivors or relatives of the killed who had fallen upon difficulties as a result of the outrage.
Mrs. Prior had applied for help on the grounds that she and her three children were entirely dependant on her late husband for support. The award committee obviously supported her plea and on 9th July, made her an immediate grant of £3-0s-0d, which was to be followed by a weekly allotment of £0-15s-0d., (£0.75p.), from 4th August 1915. In December 1915, the payments to the family were revised, with Mrs. Prior receiving £0-6s-0d. per week, and each of her children receiving £0-2s-6d. per week.
Cunard Records record the spelling of John Prior’s surname as being Pryor. This is obviously an error.
On the 22nd January 1920, his widow, Mary, married Daniel Bohan, a local farmer, and it is not thought that they had any children. She died on Christmas Day 1965, aged 83 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Massachusetts U.S. State and Federal Naturalization Records 1798 – 1950, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/304, UniLiv D92/2/11, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.