Catherine Irvine was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England, in 1884, the daughter of Alexander Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Irvine (née Hunaeus) of 'Claremont' Crosby Road, Seaforth, Liverpool, Lancashire. Her father was a Liverpool-born marine engineer, while her mother had been born in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States of America. Catherine was unmarried, and one of five children in the family.
Catherine’s father died in Forcados, Nigeria, on the 13th March 1915.
She engaged as a stewardess in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania in April 1915, at Liverpool, at a monthly rate of pay of £4-0s.-0d. and joined the vessel on the morning of the 17th April before she left on her last ever voyage out of the River Mersey.
Having completed her voyage to New York without mishap, the Lusitania left that port on the afternoon of the 1st May 1915 for what became her last ever trans-Atlantic c
within sight of the southern Irish coast by the German submarine U-20, only hours away from her home port. Catherine Irvine was killed as a result of this action, one of thirteen out of 22 stewardesses on board who perished. She was aged 30 years.
Her body was not found and identified afterwards and as a consequence, she is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 100/345, 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 – 21st January 2024.