According to the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Thomas Hannah was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1869, however, census and ship manifest records indicate that he could have been born in Downpatrick, County Down, or Belfast, County Antrim in Northern Ireland, as early as 1960! Nothing is known of his family although it is believed he was unmarried.
He was a professional member of the British Mercantile Marine and in 1915, he lived at Hilda Street, Walton, Liverpool, Lancashire.
On the 30th April 1915, he engaged as a waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at New York, at a monthly rate of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25). This was just in time for her fateful, final voyage, which he did not survive. For having left New York at 12.27 p.m. on the 1st May 1915, after a delayed start, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk, on the afternoon of the 7th May, by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland. Waiter Hannah was killed as a result of this action.
His body was recovered from the sea, however, and landed at one of the temporary mortuaries set up in Queenstown. There, it was given the reference number 173, and described as: -
Thomas Hannah, Waiter, about 6’ supposed bandsman or steward, blue uniform dress, blue eyes, long acquiline (sic) nose, regular face, slight make, dark hair and dark moustache turning grey, wore collar, black boots and socks,
Then, on the 14th May 1915, the body was buried in the Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, in Mass Grave B, Upper Tier, 6th Row, where it lies today. He was stated
to be aged 46 years.
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 crafted from Irish limestone, sited at the head of Mass Grave B, which is the centre one of the three. The names of crew members buried in the three mass graves are incised on two black granite panels mounted 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 Hannah 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.
Property found on his body, which was recovered from the body at Queenstown, on the 12th May 1915, by the United States Vice-Consul, Mr. Lewis C. Thompson, was eventually handed over to a Mr. T.J. Reilly, at 8, Birchfield Road, Walton, Liverpool, who accepted it on behalf of a Mary Hunter, on the 29th October 1915. It consisted of £0-3s.-6½d., (£0.17½p.), in British silver and copper coinage. Mary Hunter was a widow who ran a boarding house, and Mr. Thomas Reilly was one of her long-term boarders. It is likely that Thomas Hannah also lodged with Mary Hunter.
1891 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Liverpool England Crew Lists 1861 – 1919, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UniLiv. D92/6/1, 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 – 31st December 2023.