Charles ‘Charlie’ Stuart Gilroy was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 17th February 1893, the son of Arthur O’Shaughnessy and Matilda Allen Gilroy (née Taylor), of 134, Rimrose Road, Bootle, Lancashire, England. Charlie was the fourth oldest of six children and his father worked as a boot maker. His mother died in 1914.
On the 12th April 1915, at Liverpool, he engaged as a second class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania, at a monthly wage of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.) and he reported for duty on board the vessel five days later, on the morning of the 17th April, before she left the city for New York. It was not the first time that he had served on the liner.
Having had an uneventful passage to New York, he was on board when the vessel left there on the early afternoon of the 1st May 1915 for her return voyage to her home port. This was never completed; however, because six days out, on the afternoon of the 7th May, she was torpedoed by the German submarine, U-20, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and sank within 18 minutes, taking two thirds of her passengers and crew with her. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from Liverpool.
Although Charlie Gilroy was killed as a result of this action, his body was recovered from the sea afterwards, and before it was positively identified, was given the reference number 124 in one of the temporary mortuaries at Queenstown. Then, on the 10th May 1915, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown in Mass Grave C, 1st Row, Lower Tier, where it remains today. It was on that day that most of the victims of the sinking were buried in the graveyard, following a long funeral procession which began at Lynch’s Quay, in the town, outside the offices of The Cunard Steam Ship Company on the waterfront. Charlie Gilroy was aged 22 years when he was killed.
Despite the fact that he has an identifiable burial site, however, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was not aware of the fact and after the Great War, commemorated him on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing at Tower Hill, London.
However, once Graham Maddocks had established beyond doubt that he was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, the Commission agreed to erect a permanent memorial to him where he is buried, and this was done in November 1998.
It takes the form of a monument of Irish limestone, sited at the head of Mass Grave B, the centre one of the three. The names of crew members buried in the three mass graves are incised on two black granite panels on the memorial, with a legend in between them, which reads: -
1914 - 1918
IN HONOURED MEMORY
OF THOSE NAMED WHO,
SERVING ON THE
RMS LUSITANIA,
DIED WHEN THE SHIP WAS
SUNK BY ENEMY ACTION
ON 7 MAY 1915
AND ARE BURIED NEARBY
The name of Waiter Gilroy is incised on the left hand panel.
The Commission has also stated that should it ever be necessary to renew the panel bearing his name on the Tower Hill Memorial, his name would be omitted from its replacement.
In August 1915, his family was paid the residue of wages owed to him in respect of his service on the Lusitania, from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May - 24 hours after the ship had gone down. The family also took possession of property recovered from his body before it was buried. This consisted of a pair of opera glasses, £0-10s.-0d. (£0.50p.) in gold, £0-11s.-6d. (£0.57½p.) in silver, a copper penny, a fountain pen, a bunch of keys, a camera, a pair of gold studs, and a badge.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Liverpool Echo, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/51332, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 2nd December 2023.