John Henry Murphy was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 9th September 1882, the son of Nicholas and Susannah Murphy (née Silvester). His father, who was a blacksmith, died within a few months of his birth and his mother supported the family as a qualified midwife. John was the youngest of five children, although both of his parents had been married and widowed with families before their marriage in 1873. In 1915, the family home was at 1. July Road, Newsham Park, Liverpool.
After completing his schooling, John Murphy became a commercial clerk, before he joined the British Mercantile Marine as a waiter and steward on passenger ships operating out of the port of Liverpool.
He engaged as a first class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania, at Liverpool, on the 12th April 1915 at a monthly wage of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.). He then reported for duty five days later in time for the liner’s last ever departure from the River Mersey. It was not the first time that he had served on the Lusitania.
Having completed the liner’s voyage to New York, he was on board, serving in the same capacity, when the liner left New York for the last time at 12.27 p.m., on the 1st May 1915. In the afternoon of the 7th May 1915, she was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine, U-20, and sank within eighteen minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port.
John Murphy lost his life as a result of this action, although his body was recovered from the sea after the disaster and landed at Queenstown. There, in one of the temporary mortuaries, it was given the reference number 136, until a positive identification had been made. Once this had been done, however, the body was described as: -
Male, 30 years, John Murphy. Steward’s uniform, clean shaved, 5’ 8”, dark hair, straight nose, good teeth, sturdy build, braces marked Shirley President, shirt marked 11 W.R., trade mark shirt “The Berlin”. Black laced boots with toe caps. Cunard Office label marked Table 81 September 18 20.
There was no property recovered from the body, which was buried on the 10th May 1915 in Mass Grave C, in the Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, two miles north of the town. This was the day upon which most of the victims buried in Queenstown were laid to rest, after a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard office at Lynch‘s Quay on the waterfront. John Murphy was aged 32 years at the time of the sinking, although when he engaged, he stated that he was aged 30 years, and Cunard‘s personnel in the mortuary obviously agreed with this age when they described the body!
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 First Class Waiter John Murphy is incised on the right 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 received the balance of pay owed to him in respect of his service on the Lusitania’s last voyage. This was reckoned from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May, 24 hours after the great liner had gone down.
Although his mother died in 1910, John Murphy’s siblings continued to live at 1. July Road, Newsham Park, Liverpool, for many years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/102280, 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 2025.